Peace, political stability in NE since Modi govt came to power: Union minister

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Monday said there is peace and political stability in the North Eastern region since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power at the Centre.

In response to supplementaries during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha, the Minister for the Development of North Eastern Region also asserted that the government has done development works in the region and it was not “lip sympathy”.

While listing out various development initiatives implemented for the region, Reddy said that in the eight years since the Modi government came to power, there is peace and political stability in the North Eastern region, and people are ready to make investments.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned initiatives taken up by her ministry in response to certain remarks by an Opposition member.

“Obviously, some words can raise a bit of worry. Certainly no lip service… I want to give one example which pertains to the finance ministry.

“Before the last budget, I held consultations with all the northeast chief ministers and finance ministers. Based on their suggestions…for livelihoods, a special programme (has started) from the 2022 budget… a separate allocation has been made and (that is) going through the North Eastern Council,” she said.

To another query, Reddy said that with respect to employment, migration of youth from the North East is less compared to other states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

In response to a question seeking details of large scale migration of youth from North Eastern states during the last three years in search of jobs and the states to which such migration is high, the minister said the government has no data in this regard for the last three years.

“As per the Census 2011, there are 1,52,05,214 migrants in the North East Region (NER) states. Of these, 93.80 per cent (1,42,62,490) are intra-state migrants and only 6.20 per cent (9,44,050) are inter-state migrants.

“The all-India figure for inter-state migration is 11.90 per cent and 88.10 per cent for intra-state migration. The top three states to which inter-state migration from the NER states occur are West Bengal (39.56 per cent), Delhi (7.66 per cent) and Maharashtra (7.4 per cent),” he said.