New Delhi, Jan. 31: Members of Parliament from the region urged newly-appointed Union minister for the Northeast and small-scale industry C.P. Thakur and minister of state Tapan Sikdar to devote more time to the seven sister states.
Thakur and Sikdar were sworn in yesterday as part of a major Cabinet reshuffle in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
While most MPs expressed the hope that the duo would serve the region, they said there were loopholes in the functioning of Arun Shourie (who had held the portfolio earlier), which needed to be plugged. ?The foremost priority of the ministers should be to devote adequate time to the department and the region. There shouldn?t be a repetition of the functioning and methods followed by Arun Shourie as it was more an exception with him to devote time to the affairs of the region,? said Northeast MPs? Forum chairman P.R. Kyndiah, a Rajya Sabha MP from Meghalaya.
Kyndiah said the appointment of a minister of state might improve the situation as ?now only two departments will need to be administered by them and the work schedule could be worked out adequately? between them. ?However, I would like to emphasise two aspects which the ministers would do well to follow. First, they should regularly interact with MPs so that they are not cut off from the ground reality. And secondly, they ought to visit the Northeast states regularly to bridge the communication gap between the department and the state governments,? he added.
Assam MP Dijen Sarma, while offering suggestions on the same lines, said the actual ?roadblock? lies in the attitude of the Centre towards the Northeast. ?One simply has to look into the overall disbursal of funds by the various departments to gauge the sentiments in the government. What can just C.P. Thakur or Sikdar do?? he asked.
The most challenging task for the new ministers would be to arrange liberal sanction of funds for development of the region without attaching ?unnecessary preconditions?, he pointed out.