Home Minister Rajnath Singh favours reduction in central forces in North East

The people of Northeast states have suffered the trauma of insurgency for long but now they must get the dividend of peace, Union home minister Rajnath Singh here on Saturday said. Rajnath Singh said that at present, the deployment of forces was even more than when insurgency was at its peak.

Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and Union Home Secretary L C Goyal will also participate in the meeting.

“We must plan to reduce the security deployment so as to make the environment easy to encourage positive thinking among outsiders about the region”.

Rajnath Singh also appealed to the chief ministers to provide land for border fencing.

Singh said that almost 200,000 villagers living within 10 km of India-Myanmar border live at “the mercy of insurgents without security”. “Under the Border Area Development Program (BADP), for development of border areas in the region, the share of the region hike from 30% to 40%”, Singh said.

“Indo-Myanmar border has become more active as there are reports of insurgents, weapons and drugs crossing border”.

Addressing the northeast chief ministers’ meet here, he said the committee, headed by security expert R.N. Ravi, has already reviewed the situation and is expected to submit its report soon.

Singh said several small residual insurgent groups were operating from their safe havens across the border and are engaged in kidnapping for ransom, which had nearly doubled in Assam and Meghalaya.

The NSCN-K militants, who had abrogated the ceasefire with the central government on March 27, has intensified its operations in three states – Nagaland, Manipur and in Arunachal Pradesh.

In view of the significant taming of militants in the Left-ruled Tripura, the State Government on May 27 withdrew the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which gives sweeping powers and judicial immunity to security forces in conflict-hit areas.

The home minister said there was a need to tighten vigil along the Bangladesh border too.

“The state police must pay greater attention to registration and investigation of crimes”. “They are welcome to the mainstream”. When asked if the government will take any decision regarding removal of Madhya Pradesh Governor for his alleged involvement in the Vyapam scam following the Supreme Court’s observations, Singh said, “We will see”.