New security initiatives mooted for Northeast: Dr. Jitendra Singh

By NewsGram Staff Writer

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr. Jitendra Singh convened here today a meeting of Senior Intelligence Officers of Government of India and security experts to discuss new innovative security initiatives which could be undertaken in the Northeast with a view to successfully accomplish the development plans and projects in the region.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the idea to hold such a meeting was inspired by the realization that developmental works undertaken by the Centre in Northeast could achieve their optimum utility and progress only in the presence of compatible security environment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself taken keen interest in all the issues related to Northeast and in fact today's security related exercise was also inspired and encouraged by him, he added.

There were certain issues and problems peculiar to Northeast, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, and therefore these required to be dealt with exclusively. He referred to a number of suggestions which had emerged in relation to improving the security scenario in the region. These included the suggestion for modernisation of police as well as "Police modernisation grant" for Northeastern States and redeployment in the region of the existing forces like Assam Rifles and ITBP.

Although, he said, the issues, per se, pertain to Ministry of Home Affairs but since these had a strong bearing on development activities, economy and 'Act East Plan', the DoNER Ministry had undertaken upon itself the exercise to study and gather relevant security inputs and place them before the concerned authorities and the Ministry of Home Affairs for their perusal.

A number of suggestions were also made from the point of view of identifying trade corridors intra-regionally among the Northeastern States as well as with the countries across the eastern borders and a suggestion for "integrated" check posts was also put forward for consideration. Alienation of people leading to agitations and road-blockades affected both the economy as well as development activity and therefore a blueprint was sought to be developed to deal with these related problems.

The meeting decided that very soon, an exercise will be begun by identifying the most sensitive districts of the region from security point of view and deliberating on the roadmap ahead through presentations by security officials working on the ground as well as by veteran experts and security scholars who specialised in dealing with Northeast.