Shillong, May 4: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Friday said that though the North East has been clubbed as one region, but every policy would not suit each other, while pushing the idea of having a state level planning and action plan to chart out road map for effective implementation of the Act East Policy.

Speaking at an interactive session chaired by External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj which was attended by Chief Ministers of eight Northeastern States, Conrad pointed out challenges in the implementation of Act East Policy and called for continuous engagement with other North Eastern States and the Centre to take the Act East Policy forward, in order to boost trade and cultural relations with Asia–Pacific countries.

“Though North East has been clubbed as one region, however, every policy will not suit each other. Hence, a suitable approach was required, which can be arrived at with state level consultation and combined consultation among the states that share the border with the neigbouring South Asian countries,” he said.

He said that he has urged the Centre to convene more such meetings at the Regional and State level that would enable the North Eastern States to understand each other and come up with appropriate action plans for effective implementation of the Act East Policy.

The Chief Minister said that the engagement with External Affairs Minister and his counterpart was fruitful as they were able to come together and bring forward their ideas on how to move forward in the implementation of the ambitious Act East Policy.

During the interactive session, Conrad urged the Central Government to enhance road connectivity in the North East with four-lane route in all the eight States of the region as well as roads connecting with neigbouring countries.

Talking about upgrading of Land Customs Stations (LCS) in Meghalaya, the Chief Minister suggested that if LCSs were equipped with better infrastructure, it would facilitate export of products to the neighbouring nations, which will help the farmers, who are largely dependent on agriculture and allied sectors.

The Chief Minister also urged the Centre to provide adequate attention to build better infrastructure and logistic to facilitate storage of agriculture and other allied products including construction of warehouses in Meghalaya and other parts of the region.

Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, and Tripura respectively took part in the session.

Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog and Minister of State for External Affairs, V.K. Singh, Foreign Secretary, Secretary (East) from the Ministry of External Affairs as well as Secretaries from the Ministry of DoNER, Tourism and North Eastern Council participated in the discussions.