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Peaceful NE must for success of Act East Policy

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Sept 16 - Peaceful North East region is a critical element for the success of the Act East Policy and that is why the Centre is keen that there should be better synergy between the police forces of the states of the region to ensure that this part of the country remains peaceful. Moreover, another worrying factor in recent times is that along with the militants, the criminal elements are also frequently crossing the inter-state boundaries. Disturbances in one state has started affecting the others.

Highly placed sources in the Government of India told The Assam Tribune that the Centre is keen on expediting the implementation of the Act East Policy, which is vital for the development of the North East. But the Centre is of the view that the basic criteria for the success of the Policy is that the NE region has to remain peaceful. If the North East remains disturbed, implementation of the infrastructure development projects will slow down, while, at the same time, it will be difficult to attract private investors to the region, sources pointed out. That is why, the Government of India is laying stress on overall improvement of the situation and called for better coordination between the police forces of the region.

Sources said coordination between the police forces of NE states improved considerably in the past few years.

But, there is scope for further improvement with real time sharing of intelligence inputs and coordinated operations against militants, criminals and other anti-social elements. For quite some time, members of militant groups of the region have been crossing over from one state to other to avoid arrest and in recent times, there have been instances where members of ultra groups crossed over to other states to facilitate transfer of funds. Giving one such example, sources said that recently, two NSCN (I-M) militants were arrested when they entered Assam to receive funds from an officer. Moreover, members of Manipur based militant groups frequently visit Guwahati for treatment. There is need for synergy among the police forces to deal with such issues.

Moreover, any disturbance in one state create problem in others in the region. The movements demanding ST status in Assam had its impact in other states, movements against big dams had their ramifications in Arunachal Pradesh etc. Moreover, the criminals involved in rhino poaching in Assam cross over to Nagaland. To deal with such problems, there is need for the police forces to coordinate regularly at different levels, sources added.

Meanwhile, on the militancy scenario in the region, sources admitted that though the militancy is on the wane and the level of violence has come down drastically, the police and security forces should not lower their guards as remnants of militancy is still there in parts of the region. Some elements of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) and NDFB (S) are still active in parts of the State, while, the Manipur based militant groups are yet to be affected by the operations by Myanmar Army.

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