State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy on Monday requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to not only use the North-Eastern Zonal Council for resolving issues of bilateral interest but to make it a tool for economic development of the North-Eastern States. Roy had earlier discussed the issue and handed over a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee during the latter’s Jharkhand visit on January 09 this year.
During his meeting with the Union Minister and the Bihar CM at Raj Bahwan here on Monday Roy said that despite being separated Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal share similar geographical and cultural traits. Not only these traits complement each other but also the economic issues of the States are also similar, he said.
Comparing the North-Western States with the North-eastern ones, Roy said that the former ones are economically developed. “Even States around the national capital Delhi like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Haryana are also developing. The Union Government has made a separate Ministry for development of eastern States but for this it is important that these States form an economic group. Eastern Zonal Council can be a base for the same. Therefore it is important that the council not only limit itself to solving bilateral issues but emerge as an economic group through mutual coordination,” he said.
Roy also said that the Union Government is trying to better economic relations with South East Asian countries and there are only two States in the east–Odisha and West Bengal that have ports. If the four States make an economic association then Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh may also get port facilities. Also, if the posts in Bengal and Odisha are made better with help from the Centre then the eastern States can get fruits of nation’s economic relations with south east Asian countries, he added.