Incomplete projects like Kaladan should be prioritized: Patricia Mukhim

Veteran journalist Patricia Mukhim has pointed out that long-pending unfinished projects are posing as a barrier in the growth of the Northeastern region.

In a talk show organized  by InsideNE on the occasion of 75th Independence Day on Sunday with Editor-in-Chief Afrida Hussain, Patricia Mukhim said that even though the progress is happening in the region, it is not working at the desired pace.

Citing the example of Kaladan multi-model-project, Mukhim said that incomplete projects should be the priority right now. Be it for security or commercial purposes, projects should be completed, she added.

During the course of the talk, the veteran journalist speaks further on border disputes as well as on the issue of discrimination in the Northeastern region.

Here are some excerpts from the interview.

On Northeast after 75 years of Independence

It's like everything is going in a circle... During the pandemic we found that that our health care is in shambles. The rural areas do not have any health care centres to speak of. Our educational situation is bad especially government run schools. Look at our road infrastructure, nothing is in place and we are talking about Act East Policy. How can we talk of this humongous policy to connect with South East Asia, when in the region itself we are badly connected?

And then we have insurgency every now and then. It is not dead in our region, it is just dormant and it has the potential to come up any time again. We have several fronts to address but we don't seem to have the capacity to do that.

Also Read: Emotional connectivity between NE & ‘mainstream’ growing with road connectivity: Tripura Deputy CM

On border disputes

It reflects on us and on our lack of statesmanship from those we elect. There is no statesmanship there is just politicking... No body denies that there is no development. There has been development but not at the desired pace.

We didn't focus enough on resolving our border disputes and that shows our own lack of interest in resolving our border issues irrespective of states. All the states are to be blamed for not coming together. Why didn't the northeastern council try to resolve the issue?

Even after 75 years of independence... the country still imposes Armed Forces Special Power Act in some states. This was a colonial act? Why do you need it? This means that we are only half-independent. A fully independent country will not follow a colonial act.

Projects in the Northeast suffer from time and cost overrun. We need to have an independent moderating agency to shake us up and tell us where we are going wrong with projects and why we are not completing and to impose penalties.

Kaladan multi model project started sometime in 1986 or 1984 and it is still incomplete. Some people say it is for security purposes while some say it is for commercial purposes. For whatever purpose it is, it needs to be completed. All these incomplete projects should be a priority now.

We have to remember that 99% of our borders is with foreign countries. For states like Meghalaya or Tripura, we need look south towards Bangladesh instead of looking east. But we still haven't been able to negotiate the use of Chittagong port. When will that happen? That ill enable a lot of foreign trade from Meghalaya yet a lot of that still smuggled across the border. I think we need to do better but to do better we also need our vision. The Congress government was there they  had prepared their 2020 document. I don't know why the next government came in, they just put it in the cold storage.

Why do you have to do that, just look it up and learn from there. We do not have to re-invent the wheel all the time.

On discrimination

It is not like that every mainland person calls us 'chinki'. And we do the same to the mainlanders in the Northeast. It's mutual. We also must make special efforts to integrate. This 'victimhood' has to go. It is important to include all the states of Northeast in the NCERT curriculum. It should be right from class 4 or 5as people should start learning what this Northeastern region is all about. Because we as Northeast know about all the other states of the country.

Why can't the rest of India learn it? And they can learn it once this part of the region is included in the curriculum.

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