GUWAHATI, 29 Jun: The Assam government’s priority will be to resolve interstate boundary disputes among the Northeastern states, which is a major stumbling block in taking a unified policy for the region, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Assam being the ‘gateway’ to the Northeast, the development of the state is linked with that of the region but it has not been possible to bring uniformity in the policies due to the prevailing boundary disputes, Sarma said in an interview to PTI.
There are some rivalries in “maintaining the boundaries and these have acted as a stumbling block towards developing a unified policy for the development of the region,” he said.
“Resolving boundary disputes among our sister states and bringing uniformity in various policy approaches like tourism, infrastructure development and connectivity, which will go a long way in the development of the region, are among the important objectives of my government,” the chief minister said.
Assam has boundary disputes with Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal and Mizoram, and the states are ruled by parties that are a part of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) of which Sarma is the convenor. The NEDA is the NDA’s version in the region.
Asked if being the NEDA convenor makes the task of resolving the boundary disputes easier or difficult, he said that as a chief minister, “I have to protect the interests of my state and in doing so, there are bound to be certain reactions from the other states as huge sentiments are involved in this matter.”
As a chief minister, there are certain problems working with states having boundary disputes, but at the same time, it can be an asset too, he added.
“It can be an asset because of the relationship we have established with our colleagues in the other states over a period of time which can be utilized for solving these issues…. So, there are both pluses and minuses,” Sarma said.
Asked whether he is coordinating with other states in the region as part of his government’s crackdown on drug dealers since Assam serves as a transit for the contraband coming from neighbouring states, Sarma said that he has not done so as union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit Shillong next month and he will take it up at his level.
“Basically, whenever the leaders of the Northeastern states meet, we discuss the issue and the need to control the drug menace,” he said.
The chief minister said that he has not initiated a discussion primarily because Shah’s meeting will have an agenda on coordination among the NE states towards controlling the menace of drugs and other issues, such as illegal trafficking of women and children.
“When it will be taken up by the union home minister and he will address the chief ministers and director generals of police, there is bound to be more prompt and positive results,” he said.
Sarma, as the NEDA convenor, is credited with spreading the BJP’s influence in most of the states of the region, except Mizoram, where the saffron party does not have a solid base.
Asked on that, he said that, before the last assembly elections in that state in 2018, “we had worked very closely with the Mizo National Front and after the polls, the support provided by the central government to the state was very good and substantial.”
The idea was not to have a Congress government in Mizoram and “we achieved that. The next aim was to ensure that the state government works with the central government for the development of the state. We have achieved that too,” he said.
As far as the BJP is concerned, Mizoram is a state with a majority Christian population and so “there are mindset issues. It takes time to make inroads and we do not want to make it in such a way that the success of our NEDA partners is jeopardized in any way,” Sarma said.
“We have to balance our journey and the political future of our partners,” he added. (PTI)
