NORTHEAST INTEGRATION – INTERNAL SECURITY
News: Northeast
is not last part of country but gateway for trade and ties: PM Modi
What's in the news?
● Prime
Minister Narendra Modi said the Centre has been investing heavily in the
north-east with his government’s motto being ‘Act fast for northeast’ and ‘Act first for northeast”.
Key takeaways:
● Addressing
the golden jubilee celebration of the
North Eastern Council (NEC) in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, he said the Centre
is spending ₹7 lakh crore in the region compared to ₹2 lakh crore after India’s
independence.
● Established
in 1971 and formally inaugurated in 1972, the NEC is the nodal agency for the
economic and social development of the north-eastern region comprising eight
States.
● Mr.
Modi attributed the focus on the northeast to the change in the way the Centre
has been looking at the region since 2014.
Importance of North-east:
1. Growth Engine:
● The
Northeast has the potential to become the growth engine of the country.
● It
is in the context of the future of the region, with lots of development
opportunities it has.
2. Act East Policy:
● The
North Eastern Region is geographically contiguous to Myanmar, which is a part
of South-East Asia. Therefore, it has the potential to act as the Indian ‘Gateway to South-East Asia’.
3. Strategic Location:
● North
Eastern Region of India is a landlocked region, with no access to seas. This is
complicated by the presence of the Siliguri Corridor, called chicken’s neck for
India.
● Siliguri Corridor
is a mere 21 km wide corridor that connects India with its North Eastern
Region. In the event of a war, India would need to safeguard the corridor, so
that any potential advances by the Chinese in the Northern part of the
North-East region can be suitably repelled by the Indian armed forces.
4. Carbon Sink:
● India
has vowed to create an additional 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon sink per
year under its Nationally Determined Contributions as a part of the Paris
Summit.
● North-Eastern
India with its dense forest cover can play a huge role in such an endeavor.
Mizoram is the best state in India in terms of forest cover.
5. Energy Resources:
● Due
to the presence of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, the North-Eastern
region has immense potential as far as hydroelectric energy is concerned.
● Similarly,
it has been a source of crude oil and
natural gas in the form of Digboi oil fields. Potential oil and natural gas
reserves have been found at the Arakan Basin.
6. Agricultural Resources:
● The
North Eastern region is blessed with natural resources which are important for
the economic growth of the country.
● For
e.g. the tea plantations of Assam earn a significant value of foreign exchange
for the country.
● Similarly,
Bamboo is useful in the cane and
furniture industry. Bird’s Eye Chilli from Mizoram has the Geographical
Indication (GI) tag.
7. Tourism:
● The
North Eastern region can be a hub for tourist activity due to its lush green
landscape, unique tribal culture, fresh air, comfortable climate and distinct
topography.
● It
can be harnessed as a source of eco-tourism and rural tourism.
8. Environment:
● The
North Eastern Region is ideal for both passive and adventure forms of
Ecotourism with wildlife sanctuary/parks, good scenic beauty, waterfalls,
forests etc.
Challenges in North-east Integration:
1. Historical reasons:
Assam was integrated under British rule after the ‘treaty of Yandabo’. After
that this region was loosely administered only for revenue exploitation.
2. Geographically,
70% of areas are occupied by hills which are inhabited by 30% and hilly terrain
makes the accessibility very difficult and hampered the mainstreaming of the
people with the mainland.
3. Inter-ethnicity crisis
between the tribals is a cause of concern. E.g. Bodo vs Assamese.
4. Issues with migrants
from Bangladesh. E.g Chakmas & Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh.
5. Secessionist movements
like Greater Nagalim.
6. Demands for autonomy
and statehood. E.g Bodo people.
7. Deep rise of alienation
due to human rights violations by the Security forces e.g AFSPA.
8. External support:
Hostile neighbors like China extending moral and material support to the
insurgent groups.
9. Other developmental issues
like poor connectivity, lack of industrial development, corruption and poverty.
10. Sense of alienation
among the people and also widespread fear of intervention into their
traditionals and customs.
Steps taken by Government for North-East Integration:
1. Constitutional provisions:
● Sixth schedule
areas which provide autonomy to the indigenous people which protects their
traditional practices from external intervention.
● Special
status to certain states of North East under Article 371 - ‘Asymmetric federalism’.
2. Legal measures:
● PESA
act
● North
East Zonal Council.
3. Protecting Indigenous people from outsiders:
● Inner Line Permit (ILP):
ILP is an official travel document issued by the Central Government to permit
the Indian citizen to travel into the protected areas for a limited period of
time. The Indian citizens outside these protected regions must obtain ILP
before travelling to these regions. Currently, the ILP is active in Arunachal
Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur.
4. Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
(DoNER): A Department of Development of North
Eastern Region (DoNER) was established in 2001. It was elevated to a full
ministry in 2004.
5. Infrastructure Related Initiatives:
● North East Special
Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS)
launched by Centre in Dec2017 to fill the gaps in creation of infrastructures
in two sectors
● Under
Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP), road
stretches aggregating to about 5,301 km in NER have been approved for
improvement.
● The
North East has been kept as a priority area under RCS-UDAN (to make flying more affordable).
● National
Waterways on the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Barak rivers (National Waterways
(NW)-1 on the Ganges, NW-2 on
Brahmaputra and NW-16 on Barak) are under development to provide better
connectivity.
● Along
the Brahmaputra River, the development of the entire area between Sadiya and
Dhubri in Assam is ongoing for improved connectivity.
6. Connectivity Projects:
● Kaladan
Multi-Modal Transit Project (Myanmar) to develop water connectivity.
● Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar
(BCIM) Corridor.
● India-Myanmar-Thailand
Trilateral Highway.
7. External links:
● Act
East policy
● Neighbourhood
first policy.
● Better
cooperation with Bangladesh regarding migrants issue, border security, swiping
insurgency.
● Sting
bilateral relations with Myanmar to weed out north-east militant groups E.g.
Operation SunRise.
8. Military:
● Special
powers were given to the Indian military under AFSPA (Armed Forces Special
Powers Act). This was done to enable the military to deal with emergencies in
the region.
9. Peace Talks:
● Government
is continuously engaging in peace talks with the insurgent groups and accepting
the surrenders from the militants.
Important Developments under Present regime:
1. Gateway:
● He
said that, “For the Government, the north-east is not the last part of the
country, but the peace and development
gateway for trade and other ties with Southeast Asian countries”.
2. Connectivity:
● The
Prime Minister noted that the number of airports in the region increased from
nine to 16 and the number of flights
increased from 900 to 1,900 in the last eight years.
● The
Government is now under way to connect
all the state capitals of the region by railway.
● The
PM also underscored the 50% increase in
the length of national highways in the region since 2014, insisting that
the infrastructure projects in the north-east gained momentum after the launch
of the PM-DevINE scheme.
● Mr.
Modi said the government has been working on improving digital connectivity in the north-east by increasing the optical
fibre network with 6,000 mobile towers being set up at a cost of ₹5,000 crore.
● The
Atma Nirbhar 5G infrastructure will help develop the start-up ecosystem and
service sector in the region.
3. Beyond Act East and Look East:
● The
government has gone "beyond the conversion of the Look East policy to Act
East and now to Act fast for northeast and Act first for northeast".
● The
PM highlighted several peace initiatives in the north-east to help “push
development like never before".
4. Peace:
● The
developmental initiatives include peace agreements with extremist groups and
resolving decades old interstate boundary disputes.
● The
reign of peace has made the Centre lift
the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from many parts of the northeast.
● The
north-east has moved from violence and conflicts in the last eight years to an
era of peace and progress. Since 2014, extremism in the region has decreased by
74% while attacks on security forces has come down by 60% and civilian deaths
decreased by 89%.
5. Organic farming:
● The
Prime Minister highlighted the potential of organic farming in the region, the
scope for deriving benefits through the
oil pam mission, and the use of drones for farmers to overcome geographical
challenges.
● The
Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple projects
worth over ₹2,450 crore. These include an integrated
beekeeping development centre and 21 Hindi libraries for Mizoram, Manipur,
Tripura and Assam.
WAY FORWARD:
● There
needs to be a comprehensive stock-taking
of the internal challenges and an identification of regions and sectors where
there is potential.
● Development of socio economic
infrastructure, fuller utilization of natural
resources, development of entrepreneurial culture and above all extending
transnational ties will determine the future of Northeast in the near future.