Shourie for protection of NE natural resources

SHILLONG, Feb 13 —Union Minister of State for Development of Northeastern region Arun Shourie on Saturday asked its chief ministers to think of development in an innovative way and safeguard natural resources. Development does not mean implementing new schemes only if the respective states ignore the protection of the natural resources, he said and specially referred to the wanton destruction of forests in the name of development. Shourie, who was addressing the conference of chief ministers of the north-east said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had directed all the departments to monitor the expenditure and implementation of the schemes as he had specially taken interest for the development of the region. The Prime Minister had also directed that all the projects for the north-eastern region should be speedily implemented and in this regard regular meetings were held with the residential commissioners of these states every month. The Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had asked each ministry to allocate ten percent of their funds for the uplift of the North east and the money should not be transferred to any other department, he said.

Referring to the measures to check recurrent floods caused by river Brahmaputra, he said for the first time a memorandum of under standing was signed between India and China on the issue. Shourie said 486 block development offices in the Northeast had been identified for IT connection and Rs 50 crore earmarked for the purpose. All the Northeast State capitals would be connected to Guwahati by air services very soon and four aircraft of 50 seat capacity each would be introduced. Moreover, there would be direct flight from Guwahati to Bangkok twice in a week, he said.