As Arunachalees got busy with 25 years of statehood celebration, we forgot to acknowledge the ‘biggest and best’ gift from veteran politician of North East Region, Tarun Gogoi and for his generosity in dropping North East Water Regulatory Authority (NEWRA) issue which was stuck in his throat like a fish-bone for 6 long years!
To the credit of successive Arunachal CMs, they opposed NEWRA tooth and nail in over more than four meetings organized by highest authority, Ministry of Water Resources. Arunachal’s CMs have known all along that for Assam government ‘water and its by-product’ is a commodity, nothing beyond that.
That way, February 21 should go down in the history of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as the ‘biggest coup ‘day. And thank you, Tarun da!
Nevertheless, it has to be probed further when a seasoned politician of Tarun Gogoi’s caliber backs out from a stand on which he has been firm since 2004 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the formation of Gogoi’s brain child, the NEWRA.
Intriguingly, what transpired, in couple of minutes spent during informal meetings, that Gogoi sang a different tune and got wrapped up in a ‘time-capsule’ to re- think and speak about ‘infusing oxygen’ in an antique ‘white elephant’ called the Brahmaputra Board (BB)?
NEWRA, at a conceptual level, was envisaged to be a single window authority for speedier implementation of plans and programmes in deploying water resources in the entire region with special focus on Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
It is well known that Gogoi is far too season and shrewd a politician to make such hasty decision and far intelligent not to have lapped-up the ‘olive-branch’ coming from his bête noire, Akhil and team just 3 days before, on February 18. Captivatingly, team KMSS which is in constant logger-head with Gogoi led government, seems to have anticipated the much talked about informal meeting, its content and, possibly, the outcome too.
Perhaps, in an era where eves-dropping and bugging devices are common, one can’t be sure if leakages of information are through formal or informal channel but, it is certain that tea-meeting has caused a storm in power corridor, to say the least.
As concern citizens, it is important to understand and hear from horse’s mouth itself if the said meeting was arranged by the PM office or Congress party high-command? If yes, people can sleep peacefully. But if it is through hydropower lobby or coal lobby, commoners have lot to worry.
After all Arunachalees have come far away to sit in a ‘time capsule’ of barter economy –trading commodity for another commodity.
To the credit of successive Arunachal CMs, they opposed NEWRA tooth and nail in over more than four meetings organized by highest authority, Ministry of Water Resources. Arunachal’s CMs have known all along that for Assam government ‘water and its by-product’ is a commodity, nothing beyond that.
That way, February 21 should go down in the history of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as the ‘biggest coup ‘day. And thank you, Tarun da!
Nevertheless, it has to be probed further when a seasoned politician of Tarun Gogoi’s caliber backs out from a stand on which he has been firm since 2004 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the formation of Gogoi’s brain child, the NEWRA.
Intriguingly, what transpired, in couple of minutes spent during informal meetings, that Gogoi sang a different tune and got wrapped up in a ‘time-capsule’ to re- think and speak about ‘infusing oxygen’ in an antique ‘white elephant’ called the Brahmaputra Board (BB)?
NEWRA, at a conceptual level, was envisaged to be a single window authority for speedier implementation of plans and programmes in deploying water resources in the entire region with special focus on Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
It is well known that Gogoi is far too season and shrewd a politician to make such hasty decision and far intelligent not to have lapped-up the ‘olive-branch’ coming from his bête noire, Akhil and team just 3 days before, on February 18. Captivatingly, team KMSS which is in constant logger-head with Gogoi led government, seems to have anticipated the much talked about informal meeting, its content and, possibly, the outcome too.
Perhaps, in an era where eves-dropping and bugging devices are common, one can’t be sure if leakages of information are through formal or informal channel but, it is certain that tea-meeting has caused a storm in power corridor, to say the least.
As concern citizens, it is important to understand and hear from horse’s mouth itself if the said meeting was arranged by the PM office or Congress party high-command? If yes, people can sleep peacefully. But if it is through hydropower lobby or coal lobby, commoners have lot to worry.
After all Arunachalees have come far away to sit in a ‘time capsule’ of barter economy –trading commodity for another commodity.
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