JOIN USWith Rahul Gandhi cracking the whip, the UPA government has set up a committee to examine the problems people hailing from the north-eastern states face in different parts of the country.
The committee, chaired by retired bureaucrat M P Bezbaruah, was constituted by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday two days after Gandhi had assured students from the North-East protesting the lynching of Nido Taniam, a youth from Arunachal Pradesh, in Delhi.
Shinde drove to Gandhi’s residence with the government order constituting the committee and later briefed Congress MPs from the region, who gathered there, on the steps taken to address the problems faced by people from the North-East.
Former IAS officers H W T Syeim, Allen Temshi Jamir, Tape Bagra and P Bharat Singh will be members of the committee which will have Deputy Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs S Saha as Member Secretary.
The committee has been asked to submit a report within two months after examining the causes behind the attacks/violence and complaints of discrimination against the people from the North-East.
At the meeting, Gandhi wanted to know from Shinde the reasons for delay in registering an FIR in connection with Taniam’s death.
It is learnt that Shinde explained to the Congress vice-president the jurisdictional issues involved as the area where Taniam was beaten up by some people fell within the limits of one police station, while the 19-year-old breathed his last at a friend’s residence which was covered by a different policing district.
Gandhi strongly felt that there should be a system in place to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
Of the 16 Congress MPs from the North-Eastern states, who attended the meeting, some were of the view that the representatives of the state governments in Delhi should maintain a list of students who are in the capital to pursue higher studies.