Centre to provide security to mega projects in north-east:Minister

New Delhi, Oct 14 (UNI) The government will deploy permanent security force at its own cost at sites of mega infrastructure projects in the north-east to ensure their speedier and safer execution.

The Home Ministry had accepted the proposal a few weeks ago, disclosed Union Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region Mani Shankar Aiyer at a conference on the region held here today.

The decision on the security issue is likely to be notified in a few days, industry body Assocham said today quoting the minister.

Once the decision is notified, it would be the responsibility of Centre to deploy around 100-200 security personnel on sites of mega projects for their early commissioning, Mr Aiyer said, adding the cost of security would be borne by the Union governmment.

Assurance to provide full-proof security to investors in his state was also held out to corporates by Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh at the conference organised by Assocham.

Urging private sector to invest in his state, the Chief Minister asked them to make use of what he described as the best incentive package offered by his government to the industry.

Meanwhile, Mr Aiyer said the Centre would spend Rs 14 lakh crore for development of the region between 2008 to 2020.

He lambasted corporates for not taking adequate interests in industrial development of north-eastern region, pointing out that their contribution was just half a per cent as against the Centre's 10 per cent of its planned development funding for economic uplift of the region.

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