AGARTALA, July 13 (TIWN):Narendra Modi led BJP government mulls the idea to set up headquarters of Ministry of Development of Northeast Region (DoNER) in a convenient location of the region to reduce the gap with New Delhi to expedite development activities of the states.Official sources here today informed after taking charge as DoNER minister former Army Chief Gen (Retd) V K Singh discussed the matter in the union cabinet and the proposal starts rolling for policy decision.

With the initiative of setting up DoNER’s headquarters four states – Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Assam have already started lobbying to facilitate the centre to set up offices in their respective states.

According to DoNER officials, the states have formulated their own argument to pursue the case in their favour for past two weeks in Delhi.

Interestingly, Tripura argued that the state is peaceful and having a stable government with a record of successful implementation of development projects over past 10-15 years is now having direct and affordable air connectivity with Delhi and other northeastern states besides, proximity with good neighbor Bangladesh.

While Meghalaya said the state has been facilitating NEC headquarter and DoNER’s regional office and it has a good connectivity with rest of the country via Guwahati, Sikkim has another logic that most of the DoNER ministry project are being implemented in the state and it is peaceful and closely connected with Northeastern states, West Bengal and Delhi.

Assam has been inheriting the privilege to have DoNER’s headquarters because Guwahati is the gateway of northeast and having large geography and huge investment potential from in and outside the country besides, it is catering the need of all the northeastern states.

The decision of the centre has not yet been communicated but DoNER minister Mr Singh while interacting with the states representatives stated that he had served in the northeast in different ranks, including the GoC-in-C of Eastern Command in counter-insurgency operations in the region before taking over as the chief of staff and he is aware of the need of the region.

He made it clear that the new government has set three priorities for the northeast - infrastructure development, including roads, railways and air connectivity to Southeast Asian countries, world-class higher education institutes and world-class healthcare facilities in both private and public sectors.

"The option of setting up DoNER headquarters in the region in under consideration. We have to look into several factors... we have the North Eastern Council here. Let's see what comes out... 'vish' or 'amrit' (poison or nectar)" he said in a regional level meeting last week in Guwahati.