GUWAHATI, May 22 — The industry circles in North East has high hopes on the new Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as he has been elected thrice to the Rajya Sabha from the State and on top of that he is more of an economist than a political leader. Talking to The Assam Tribune, the secretary of the Federation of Industries and Commerce of North eastern Region (FINER) Prasanta Goswami pointed out that Dr Singh knows the problems faced by the industries in Assam and it would be easier for him to formulate schemes for the industrialisation of the region. He also pointed out that Dr Singh properly used all his MP’s Local Area Development funds visibly in the State and hoped that he would continue to work for the all round development of Assam.
The FINER is of the view that the North East Industrial policy should be exclusive for the region, which is plagued by the problems, which are not faced by any other part of the country. The FINER pointed out that though the NE Industrial policy was a gift to the region, the shine of the policy wore off with the granting of the same benefits to states like Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chattisgarh. The FINER secretary pointed out that the region has specific problems faced by no other part of India including transportation bottleneck, distance from the markets etc. He said that there were instances when potential investors decided to shift their industries to the other States, which are given the benefits given in the NE Industrial Policy. He demanded that as Dr Singh is well versed with the problems of the region, he should formulate a special Industrial Policy exclusively for the region to attract investors to this backward region of the country.
Meanwhile, the FINER president S Agarwala, in a memorandum to Dr Singh demanded that the NE region should be declared as a special economic zone. “The root cause of most of the problems faced by the region is economic backwardness and we hope that under your leadership the region would see a better tomorrow,” the memorandum added.
The FINER stressed the need for improving connectivity of the region to the mainland of the country and said that the prosperity of the region lies in opening of the trade routes with the South East Asian countries and the communication links must be developed immediately for achieving that goal. The memorandum said that the NDA Government had initiated steps like establishment of the East West Corridor, opening of the Stilwell road, navigation through Bangladesh etc and the need of the hour is to remove all the stumbling blocks in the way of communication network to other parts of the country. The FINER pointed out that the only international airport in the region must be developed into a hub of activities.
The memorandum said that the Department for Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER) was a gift of the NDA Government to the region. The FINER said that as Dr Singh is well versed with the problems of the region, he should take over the mantle of running the Ministry in his own shoulders to ensure its proper functioning for the development of the region.