SHILLONG, Sept 21 - The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) was created after a delegation of North East Students� Union (NESO) requested former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to create a �special Ministry� for North East.
Minister in-charge Urban Affairs, Hamlet Dohling, former KSU president, recalling his 2001 meeting with the then Prime Minister Vajpayee as part of a NESO delegation, said the former PM was extremely approachable.
During that visit, he narrated during the obituary reference in the Autumn session of Meghalaya Assembly today that the delegation placed various demands before late Vajpayee for his consideration.
�One of those demands was setting up of a special Ministry for the development of the region. The Prime Minister gave his personal assurance that the concerns and issues raised by the NESO delegation would be looked into,� Dohling said.
Sometime later, Dohling said, Vajpayee created the Ministry of DoNER exclusively for the region. �On behalf of KSU and GSU, I would like to pay condolences,� the Minister said.
