Imphal, November 02: A public hearing on the draft document of Vision 2020 was kick-started today at State Guest House with Chief Minister O Ibobi as chief guest.

The public hearing was attended by legislators, academicians, experts and leaders of social organisations.

The draft report of "Peace, Progress and Prosperity in the North Eastern Region : Vision 2020" was prepared by the National Institute Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi under the Ministry of DONER.

Addressing the inaugural session of the public hearing, Chief Minister O Ibobi asked, "For how long shall we put this beautiful document in the dust bin?" He observed that the Union Government takes too much time in taking up any development project.

"I'm really anxious about how much time the Centre would take to implement the Vision 2020 document", said Ibobi.

Even as the Look East Policy was conceived some 15 years back with the objective to bring about speedy development in the North East region, the region is yet to reap any meaningful benefit of the LEP, Ibobi noted.

Observing that the Union Government lacks commitment in implementing any development scheme in the region, the Chief Minister lamented that even after three years of laying the foundation stone for Jiribam-Imphal railway, the necessary ground work is yet to take off.

The foundation stone was laid by Railway Minister Laloo Prasad himself in November 2004.He also decried that the Union Ministries often consume too much time in paper works.

The lackadaisical attitude of the Union Government and the inordinate delay in implementing development projects including the Jiribam-Imphal railway project which has already been declared a National project only goads the people of Manipur to raise serious questions about the sincerity of the Union Government.

However, the State Government has been providing all the requirements necessary for implementation of the projects, Ibobi asserted.

He mentioned that absence of standard transport and communication infrastructure has been the most prominent hurdle for development and progress of the North East region.

Forest and Environment Minister Th Debendra who presided the inaugural session of the public hearing observed that the people of the North East are fed up with the beautiful but hollow words used by the Central leaders to describe the region and to provide hope to its people.

He demanded actions commensurate to their reassuring words.

The vision document prepared with the objective to make North East region a peaceful and developed region should be implement in letter and spirit, Debendra asserted while calling upon all to extend all possible cooperation to implement the draft report fully and successfully.

During the first session presided by Forest and Environment Minister Th Debendra, senior economist of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Gautam Naresh presented a paper.

The second session was presided by Principal Secretary DS Poonia.

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