Centre’s one-size-fits-all approach in policy-making irks northeast Chief Ministers

Chief Ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled States in the northeast have asked New Delhi to stop treating the entire region as a single entity while designing policies.

Speaking to The Hindu on Saturday from Imphal, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said, “The potential of each State should be analysed and investments and policy support should be made State-specific.”

Mr. Singh was echoing Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s statement on Friday that part of the northeast’s problem has been the Centre’s one-size-fits-all approach.

“All the northeastern States, while being looked upon as one single entity from the mainland perspective, are quite distinct and different from each other. Each State has its own potential and challenges. Even within a State like ours, each region, district, and community has its own potential and challenges,” Mr. Khandu said at a two-day conclave on planning policies for farm resurgence in the Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar.

Specific schemes

“I would therefore, request the Government of India officials to approve and sanction State-specific programmes and schemes to benefit the northeastern States in real terms,” he said.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, too, has been vocal about polices and schemes that are need-based.

The BJP is in power in six of the eight States in the region. The party has a government on its own in Arunachal Pradesh and is in coalition in the others — Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. Mizoram and Sikkim are the other two States in the region.