Devp will improve law and order in NE: Jairam Ramesh

Imphal, Sep 30: The Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today said the Centre was seriously concerned with the law and order situation in the North East (NE).

Mr Ramesh at a meeting in the Raj Bhawan here said corruption and bad governance were largely responsible for the deteriorating law and order problems in the NE.

He said there has been a spurt of upto 40 per cent in the extortion cases in the region and stressed that developmental activities and good governance could only solve the problem.

Those who were leading violent agitations in Mizoram and Asom in the past had joined politics and became Chief Ministers he said.

He also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been representing Asom since 1992 and understands the 'agony of the people' and there was no point of playing double politics while dealing with ULFA, which was recently called off by the Centre, he said.

'' The Constitution is sacrosanct and there is no room to hold plebiscite in solving insurgency problems,'' he said.

It may be noted that the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) had mooted the idea of holding talks under UN intervention and offered to lay down arms if the state was demilitarized.

The UNLF further suggested to hold plebiscite and hand over the political powers to the party decided by the people.

Rejecting the plebiscite proposal he said, ''there might be a possibility of talks for autonomy.'' Regarding the NSCN(IM) demands for Greater Nagaland by annexing portions of Manipur, Asom and Arunachal Pradesh, he clarified that the UPA government had already declared not to touch the political boundaries of the NE region.

'' This is not the time to redraw a boundary but to think of growth and development,'' he said.

He futher said peace in a particular state could not be restored at the cost of peace of another state.

''However, the Centre is ready to hold talks with them who lays down the arms'' he said.

He also the cited the example of the national flag being removed from his vehicle here for security reasons. ''The state's situation has really gone bad,'' he said.

UNI