NEW DELHI, Feb 3 � Bangladesh may have sanctioned the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports for North Eastern States, but the Centre is still going ahead with its project of developing the Sittwe Port in Myanmar.
Clarifying the Centre�s position, Minister DoNER, Bijoy Krishna Handique said the project work is going on in Myanmar and on the Indian side the Ministry of Transport and Highways are conducting the survey work. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2014.
Officials here clarified that Sittwe Port would ensure a direct access to a port without touching a foreign country, while in case of Chittagong and Mongla, goods have to pass through another country.
Last month, Government of India announced opening of bids for developing Sittwe Port, at an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore. The bids were opened on January 18 for dredging and setting up port facilities. The Ministry of External Affairs is sponsoring it.
Conceived as a gateway for the North Eastern States, India and Myanmar had formally signed a MoU. The land-locked region would get access to Bay of Bengal through Sittwe Port in Myanmar. Road connects the Port through Kaladan River, which in turn leads to Aizwal. The agreement was signed when bilateral relations with Bangladesh had nose-dived and India was looking for an outlet to the sea.
Meanwhile, the Minister, DoNER, today denied reports of diversion of funds from his ministry stoutly defending the move of outsourcing a few capacity building schemes to outside the region to institute of national repute.
The Minister said he does not owe explanation to any NGO but at the same item he cannot allow the people of the region to be misled by such allegations. He said the NGO should have first checked the facts before making the allegation.
Addressing a press conference here today, Handique referring to reports that his Ministry has provided undue benefit to various government and non-governmental organisations outside the region in the name of capacity building, he said it gives the impression that the same has been done during his tenure.
�The allegations are completely baseless and devoid of any truth since I have taken over the charge as Minister DoNER on May 29, last year, whereas the annual report quoted in the news reports pertained to the fiscal 2008-2009,� he said.
However, the Minister defended the move to engage organisations outside the region pointing out that the people, who were trained in these organisations, as part of the capacity building programme, were from the North-East.
These works were given at a time when such specialised organisations were not in existence in the region. �If we have good institutes we will get our people trained in the region itself. But we will also take advantage of the national institutes,� he emphasized.
Citing an example, he said the ongoing Gas Cracker Project at Dibrugarh requires 6000 workers, but have managed to engage only 4000. So to ensure that the Project is completed within the schedule period of 2012, people are being sent to an institute in Hyderabad for training. �We have started the process and the first batch of 400 trainees are about to leave,� he said.
The Minister, though added that since he has taken over, he has sanctioned institute like CIPET at Guwahati and Imphal at a cost of Rs 2.50 crore for capacity building. Besides DOEACC Society at Guwahati and Kohima and NSIC incubator at Guwahati, amongst others.
Handique said gradually as and when such institutes come up in the North-East, they would be engaged. �We had asked for setting up of nine ITIs in the region, and five has been sanctioned,� he revealed.
The entire controversy pertains to the scheme of DoNER, called Capacity Building and Technical Assistance under which institutes and organisations outside the North-East were given work worth Rs 12.49 crore out of Rs 12.75 crore.
