Imphal, October 15: Rich in natural resources and a treasure house of floral and faunal bio-diversity, North Eastern region including Manipur was a gateway to East and Southeast Asian before attainment of India's independence from British rule.

However, after independence and the subsequent trauma of partisan in 1947, the development of the region has been taken backward by 30 years besides placing hurdles on the future economic progress, according to the draft report of the vision document for the development of the region.

These points among others have been elucidated for consideration in the Vision Document, 'Peace, Progress and Prosperity in the North East Region: Vision 2020, prepared by the New Delhi based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy at the commission of the Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

The Vision Document which is still a draft report takes a holistic approach to the development of the region unlike other previous voluminous Government reports that merely state the obvious.

Troubled by history and geo-politics, the draft report noted that the Northeast has remained one of the most backward regions of the country and the entire economic landscape changed after independence and partisan.

By confining connectivity to the heartland through a narrow 22 km wide Siliguri corridor, all the natural transportation routes and markets of the region have been sealed.

The vision document for the development of the NE region which is significantly sharing 4500 km long border with neighbouring countries like China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan underlined 5-point strategies to remove the perennial dependence for resources on the Central Government and the patronising culture to placate the region so that the region can participate in the global economy by 2020.The 5-point strategies are, firstly, participatory development articulated though grassroots planning in which focus should be to develop the sectors and sub-sectors with comparative advantage; secondly, augmenting the capacity of the people to participate productively in the economic activities and cation and development of the institutions to design and implement developmental programmes as desired by the people; thirdly, augmenting infrastructure, particularly connectivity and transport infrastructure to facilitate two-way movement of people and goods within the region and outside and open up markets for the produce in he region, attract private investments and crate greater employment opportunities and choice for the people of the region; fourthly, ensuring adequate flow of resources for public investments in infrastructure, implementing a framework for private participation in augmenting infrastructure and creating an enabling environment for the flow of investments to harness the physical resources of the region for the welfare of the people and lastly, transforming the governance by providing a secure, responsive and market friendly environment including protecting the property rights of the investors and ensuring a corrupt free administration.

The draft report of the vision document calculated that in order to bring up the income level of the region at par with rest of the country by 2020 from its present status of below 30 percent National average, the annual growth rate of the region should be accelerated to 11.8 percent.

In order to achieve this target, the draft report divided the plan periods till 2020 into three and expected that the desired growth rate of 13.11 percent may be achieved by the 13th Plan.

Taking recognisance of the need for human resource development, the vision document noted underdevelopment in rail and road communication in the region as the main reason for all pervading sense of alienation of the region from the mainland.

Consequently, it mooted that all the highways should be made four-laned and implementation of the Central Master Plan for road connectivity of the region by 2015 as well as connection of all the sub-divisional headquarters by all-weather roads.

Apart from keeping the target for increasing the foodgrain production of the region, the draft report also took note of the need to restore normalcy and bring about peace in the region along with stepping up the activities for bringing about economic growth.

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