Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 19
Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang stated on Tuesday that the first priority of infrastructural development in the North East region should be construction of highways and railways within the region, and connecting it with mainland India and the neighboring countries.
By doing so, Zeliang said the geographical isolation of the region will become a thing of the past and its location would no longer be considered remote and isolated but central and strategic in terms of international trade and development.
The Chief Minister said this while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day workshop on “India-Japan partnership towards meeting the challenge of infrastructure development in India’s Northeast” at Hotel Acacia, Dimapur on Tuesday.
The workshop is organized in pursuance of the “Tokyo Declaration for Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership”, during the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries in Tokyo in 2014 which placed special emphasis on Japan’s cooperation for enhanced connectivity and development in North East, and linking the region to other economic corridors in India and to South East Asia.
In terms of connectivity, Zeliang felt that the most practicable and convenient road and rail connections between India and South East Asian countries should run through Nagaland to Moreh border town via Imphal in Manipur.
The chief minister also underscored that the North East region was still not open to South Asian countries either by road or railways despite a number of vision documents along with the ‘Look East Policy’ and now the ‘Act East Policy’ being introduced by the Government of India.
Not fencing, construct
roads to Myanmar
Also expounding on the development and security strategy for the Nagaland sector of the Indo-Myammar border, which he maintained would be equally relevant for the Manipur and Mizoram sectors as well, the chief minister said the logic behind Government of India fencing India’s land borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh does not apply in the case of India’s land border with Myanmar.
Elucidating his point, Zeliang said in the Nagaland sector, the international boundary does not follow a river or other convenient landmarks and instead follows the water-shed principle. Taking Longwa village where the International boundary runs right through the middle of the Angh’s (Village Chief) house as an instance, Zeliang said Nagas and their ancestral lands have been badly divided by the Indo-Myanmar border.
And despite the free-movement regime with the open unguarded border, Zeliang said there have practically been no migrations of the native Nagas across the international border- basically because of the strong attachment the Nagas have for their ancestral land.
“In fact, what we need is not barbed wire fencing, but construction of roads across the border to “un-lock the land-locked areas”, and promote trade and development.
Meanwhile, welcoming Japan’s commitment for infrastructural development in the North East region, Zeliang hoped that with the successful implementation of the projects in this region, the name of Japan will no more be associated with war, but with peace and development in the minds of the new generation of this region.
Japan committed for NE infrastructure development: Akio Isomata
North East region is the centre of all concepts and notions of connectivity between India and rest of the Asian countries, stated Akio Isomata, Minister (Economic) in the Embassy of Japan, New Delhi here at Dimapur.
“There are actually a lot of notions and concepts of connectivity. It’s about layers of concept- connectivity of North East with other parts of India as well as with other Asian countries,” Isomata stressed while giving a special remark at the inaugural of the workshop on “India-Japan partnership towards meeting the challenge of infrastructure development in India’s Northeast” on Tuesday.
Maintaining that North East region remains at the centre for all these concepts, the Japanese minister however stressed on the need to go beyond concept and notions of connectivity to really bring the challenges of infrastructure development to implementation.
He said one should always keep in mind that connectivity enhancement should serve the improvement of the quality of life in the North East region.
The Japanese minister also raised concern on the issue of security once the projects of infrastructure development in the Northeast get underway.
