New Delhi, Feb 23 (AGENCIES): Newly appointed Governor K Sankaranarayanan wants Nagaland to be developed by establishing professional institutions and improving road, rail and air connectivity to allow the Naga people to showcase their diverse talents. “There are no medical and engineering colleges in the state. It is surprising. I want to contribute as much as I can to change the face of Nagaland,” he told here. “There is no railway connectivity from the state to any part of North India. The state has only seven kilometers of railway tracks. We will have to improve this,” he said.
Sankaranarayanan, who met President A P J Abdul Kalam, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony in the capital, said education and connectivity were key to the development of Nagaland.
He also met Home Minister Shivraj Patil yesterday and discussed various issues related to the state’s development and security situation. “It is highly essential to establish a medical college, an engineering college and a nursing college in the state without any delay. I have taken up the matter with Central ministers and they extended total support for it,” he said. “I will urge the centre to give priority to education as job-oriented courses are a must for the state,” he said.
Sankaranarayanan, who was sworn in as Governor on February 3, said he would also work to ensure better connectivity to all corners of Nagaland. Sankaranarayanan, the first politician to be appointed as Nagaland’s Governor in the past two decades, said the centre has decided to invest Rs 50,000 crore for the development of surface transport infrastructure in the northeast in the 11th plan period. “This will change the face of road connectivity in the region,” he said.
Sankaranarayanan said he would also meet Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to discuss the establishment of an airport in Nagaland. Asked about his meeting with Kalam, he said the President emphasized the need for developmental activities in Nagaland and agreed to visit the state next month. All the central ministers he met had assured they would give total support to developmental activities in the state, he said.
Asked whether he had taken up security-related matters with Antony in light of reports of factional clashes between the NSCN-IM and its rival NSCN-K, he said, “there is a system for all these matters and they will take care of them.”
Asked whether development is possible in the state if the peace talks with the NSCN-IM failed, he said, “everybody, including the Naga insurgents, want peace in the state. “People want peace and development and that is the only way, and I am confident that the peace talks will succeed,” the former Kerala minister said.
Sankaranarayanan said he had not received any request for a meeting from NSCN-IM leaders Thuingaleng Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu, who are currently in Nagaland. However, Sankaranarayanan, who succeeded former Intelligence Bureau Chief Shyamal Dutta as Governor, said he was confident a solution to the decades-old problem of insurgency in Nagaland will be found.
