SHILLONG, AUG 24: National People’s Party (NPP) Tura Member of Parliament (MP) Conrad K Sangma today emphasized the need to make the North Eastern Council (NEC) as a policy and coordinating agency for the NE region.
“The NEC must become a policy agency, it must become a direction and it must become a coordinating agency for all the different departments that are working here,” Sangma said.
According to him, there is a realization that there are many concerns out here but at the end of the day there is no particular agency that gives the entire master plan to coordinate with the concern bodies.
“If I were to say what is the one thing we must do immediately in order to move this entire Act East and coordination of this region forward there are many things but the beginning would be to change the scope of work and responsibility of the NEC,” he asserted.
Sangma was addressing at the international seminar on “cross border connectivity and inclusive growth: possibilities and challenges with special reference to the North Eastern Region” organized by the Shillong College as part of its closing ceremony of the diamond jubilee celebration held here on Thursday.
Stating that the NEC has been reduced to a simple gap-funding-agency, Sangma said that he sometimes get depressed to see the list of projects proposed by the NEC which include setting up of piggery unit by some NGOs in some states.
“I am not saying it is not important and am sure it is benefiting individuals. But is NEC meant for just that? What was NEC meant for when it was brought in the beginning, it was meant to create a policy, a road map for all the states of the NE,” he said.
He added, “It was given a budget of Rs 700 crore that time and sadly it is still Rs 700 crore till today so where is the growth and where is the utilization of an organization like the NEC.”
He said some people have proposed that there should be a UN kind of a system out here where we may have elected representatives who would be part of the NEC, something like NE parliament and added these ideas can be looked into.
“But before we go that far, at least whatever we have with us right now is important we push that forward,” he said.
According to him, all sectors like the education, agriculture, transport, power and others are doing their work but somewhere the coordination is missing and it is here where the NEC should come in.
Raising concern over climate change, Sangma, who is also NPP national president, further stressed the need for coming up with an ‘Adaptation Policy’ to address the various issues related to climate change.
“Climate change is a reality and we need to look at adaptation policy,” he said while pointing that there have been so much of floods due to heavy rainfall this year and that it is going to get worst.
He said what do we do to ensure our banks our protected we cant stop rain but we can ensure we manage the water and not only that agriculture due to rainfall is going to be affected, then what do we do – a policy is needed to be put in place.
Sangma also foresee that migration of about 50 million populations into West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya when the sea-level rises in Bangladesh, which may lead to the country submerging under water.
Congratulating the college for its achievements, the MP also said with over 45 million youths going to be in universities by 2030, it is critical to develop infrastructure to meet this target.
“The North East Hill University (NEHU) should allow colleges to do more courses. NEHU should also tied up universities from abroad for exchange programmes and researches,” he asserted.
Earlier, the MP also released the “60th Milestones” – a documentary on Shillong College, which was established in 1956, during the function.
By Our Reporter
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