Context- Recently, it is highlighted that the Northeast India was ‘invented’ via a series of ad hoc decisions aimed at governing the erstwhile frontier region.
About North Eastern Region (NER)
- It incorporates 8 States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
- The North Eastern Council is the nodal company for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region which consists those States
- It was constituted in 1971 by way of an Act of Parliament.
Historical Linkages
Pre Independence
- The extant identity of Northeast India as a area has advanced over time following the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 among the British and the Burmese.
- In 1874, Assam became a separate province under the management of a commission.
- In 1919 Assam was introduced under the rule of the Governor in step with the Government of India Act 1919.
Post Independence
- By the Sixties, country wide safety concerns were heightened.
- India misplaced a border battle with China in 1962, with the Chinese entering all the way into Assam, and the motion for Naga independence turned into complete swing.
- India and Pakistan fought a warfare in 1965, and the Mizo riot commenced the subsequent year.
- The shape of Northeast India fashioned at some stage in the colonial period in large part continued to exist until the 1960s with the formation of Nagaland State and Reorganisation of Assam in the Nineteen Seventies.
- In December 1971, laws -the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act and the North-Eastern Council Act -have been enacted via Parliament.
- Four states of Northeast India emerged from the nation of Assam – Nagaland in 1963, Meghalaya in 1972, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in 1987 (they became Union Territories in 1972).
- Two of them – Manipur and Tripura had been princely states at some point of the colonial duration.
- Arunachal Pradesh existed inside the form of an administrative unit referred to as the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA).
- Sikkim was a country prior to becoming a member of India as a kingdom in 1975.
Importance
- Northeast India is an essential place within the Indian Union because of its particular geographical and socio-ethnic profile.
- It has five,484 km of international border viz. Bangladesh , Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Nepal.
- It covers 7.97% of the country’s geographical area and 3.78% of its population.
- It is culturally and ethnically diverse having extra than 2 hundred ethnic businesses which have wonderful languages, dialects and socio-cultural identities.
- Petroleum and tea are vast sources harnessed in the location.
- At the same time, agriculture, horticulture and handloom remain the principal activities.
Issues and Challenges
- The terrain, the state of socio-financial improvement and historical factors together with language/ ethnicity, tribal rivalry, migration, management over nearby sources and long and porous worldwide borders have ended in a fragile safety situation within the North Eastern States.
- This has ended in violence, extortion and numerous needs by way of numerous Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) which keep safe havens/camps in neighbouring nations.
Various Initiatives
- The Ministry of Home Affairs is taking all feasible steps to address the genuine demands of diverse ethnic businesses for improvement and for autonomy in managing their affairs.
- The infrastructural developments like avenue, rail link, electricity delivery, water supply and so on. Are treated with the aid of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and various different line Ministries
- The troubles regarding strengthening of safety, rehabilitation of humans stricken by militancy, bringing underground clothing to the main-movement via negotiations and many others. Are taken care of by using the North East Division.
- In this regard, numerous border dispute agreement agreements and peace accords have been signed with applicable stakeholders.
- Further, with the assistance of the armed forces, satellite camps of rebel organizations working from foreign soil have additionally been neutralized at scale.
- The protection scenario inside the North-Eastern states has considerably improved considering 2014.
- The government is dedicated to the all-spherical improvement of the Northeast place and making it an economic hub connecting Southeast Asia beneath the Act East Policy.
- ‘Act East Policy’ introduced in November 2014 is the improve of the ‘Look East Policy’ which was promulgated in 1992.
- A new scheme, The Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for the North-East (PM-DevINE), changed into announced in the Union Budget 2022-23 with an preliminary allocation of Rs 1,500 crore.
Way Ahead
- Over the last few years, the Union Government has been extremely responsive to the needs of this region, by making enhanced connectivity, improved infrastructure and people’s welfare part of its core development agenda.
- From being at the margins of the India tale, the Northeast is fast turning into one of the country’s boom engines.
- Still ,there is want to take greater steps to make the North East a developed vicinity and convey it on par with the relaxation of India
Source: Indian Express
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