Special states status will not solve NE problems: PPA

Our Correspondent

Itagar, May  2 : The system of continued ‘dependency syndrome’ on central assistance can never be an all time pacea for the economic backwardness of the Northeastern states, more so for the state of Aruchal Pradesh, the Peoples’ Party of Aruchal (PPA) observed during a party meeting here on Friday.

The chief ministers of all the Northeastern states instead of adopting resolution seeking the Prime Minister’s intervention to continue with the Special States Category status to NE states should fight, henceforth, for equal representation of the states in the Upper house (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian Parliament, opined Kaling Jerang, Secretary General of the party.

He said that the number of seats in the House of People (Lok Sabha) anyway is directly linked to the population and there is no need to duplicate the principle. A balance of power between the states inter se is desirable and this is possible only through equality of representation in the Rajya Sabha. The functioning of Rajya Sabha should be reformed to achieve the origil purpose of federal equilibrium, said Jerang. “The Northeastern chief ministers instead of pleading for economic packages should in united fight for amendment of the relevant provisions to give equality of seats to states in the Rajya Sabha, irrespective of their population size. The parliament should act restoring section 3 of the Representation of People Act as it origilly stood to redeem the federal balance in shared governce.”