NGO's raise their ugly head in North East

NGOs have been detrimental to the growth of the North Eastern states in India and they have found to be stalling several projects under the garb of human rights.

The submission by Kiren Rijiju, junior Home Minister to Parliament made it clear that the government was serious about the issue of NGO's playing a negative role in the growth of the Indian economy. He also made it clear that there were 69 NGOs which had been blacklisted and they were barred from receiving foreign funds.

NGO's and the North Eastern problem

NGOs have mushroomed in large numbers in North East especially in Shillong and Manipur. There are at least 6 NGO's including the Dutch funded CORDAID which are getting funds from abroad to stall projects under the garb of human rights.

It was found by the Intelligence Bureau that the NGO's were staging protests against oil projects claiming that the tribals should preserve it for their own use instead of letting the government of India sell to the Multi National Companies.

Investigations found that a majority of the funding came from the Dutch government and such funding has been going on for several years now.

A training programme

It was found by the Intelligence Bureau that the Dutch funded NGOs had conducted a training session for several other NGOs on the use of Global Positioning Systems to track oil wells.

The NGOs which obtained this training used the GPS technology to track the oil wells. A data base had been prepared and protests were targeted on these areas where the government proposed to carry out projects.

During the protests it was found that an American National along with two Dutch nationals had spoken about the ill-effects of a government programme in the area. " These oil reserves are bigger than the ones at Gulf. Preserve them for your own use and do not let the government lay its hands and sell it," the American and Dutch nationals told the protestors.

• Government concerned about NGO's in North East

• NGO's funded by Dutch government prevents oil projects

• North East needs development for better job opportunities

• NGO's use GPS to locate oil wells and stage protests

North East needs more

The people of North East have very often complained about the lack of facilities in their states. These states torn between terrorism and lack of opportunities has never been prime on the agenda of any government. This has led to a major influx of people from North East into other states in India in search of job opportunities.

The government recently decided to make racial abuse a punishable offence under the Indian Penal Code. While this is one step forward in ensuring that the people from North East are protected, many feel that development will be the real answer to the problems.

People from North East need to find jobs in their home towns and in order for this to happen developmental projects should be allowed to come up.

The government feels that NGOs in North East are playing truant. Telling the tribals to preserve the oil makes no sense and this is just a way of ensuring that the government does not lay its hands on the oil.