Nagaland’s lone Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, Neiphiu Rio took oath as an MP on June 5. According to a press note issued by PRO, Nagaland House, New Delhi, Rio has been meeting a number of leaders and ministers in New Delhi after taking oath. He met Union Home Minister and National BJP President Rajnath Singh, in a meeting with whom he highlighted the need for early resolution of the Naga political issue. He also met and impressed upon Union Minister of State (Home) Kiren Rijuju to expedite the peace process and work towards early resolution of the political problem.
Later Rio met Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Sarbananda Sonowal and highlighted the need to promote sports and youth activities, create employment and entrepreneur opportunities and promote youth empowerment. Rio stressed on the urgent need to promote youth of the North Eastern region and address the problems being faced by the people of the North East in the rest of the country, especially in metropolitan cities.
Urges support for
resolution to Naga issue
Participating in the ongoing parliament session immediately after the election of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Rio congratulated the newly elected Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan. Rio extended felicitations on behalf of Nagaland, the Naga People’s Front and the North East Regional Parties Front to the Speaker.
He assured cooperation to the Chair while urging upon her support in bringing about peace and resolution of the Naga political problem. He stressed that Nagaland is fifty years old, that he was the lone MP in the House and that the Naga political problem needed to be seriously discussed and addressed.
It was also informed that senior leaders, including both the MPs from Sikkim, Rajya Sabha MP, S. Reddy, senior officers and representatives of NGOs and civil societies have called on Rio.
Highlights poor air connectivity
The Lok Sabha MP has taken up the issue of poor air connectivity in Nagaland with the Prime Minister and the Union Civil Aviation Minister. In a letter addressed to the PM, Rio stated, “at present, only Air India is operating in Dimapur with five flights a week to Kolkata via Dibrugarh. In this regard there is an urgent need to increase air services to Dimapur and also introduce new flights in this sector in the greater interest of the people.”
The letter further informed that the Dimapur Airport is in very poor condition and its facilities need to be immediately improved and upgraded. At present the aircraft that is operating in the Dimapur sector is very old and regularly faces technical problems and therefore this concern also needs to be addressed urgently, the letter stated.
Rio suggested some immediate actions to be taken up by the Government of India like introduction of direct flights from Delhi to Dimapur and Dimapur to Delhi via Kolkata, introduction of Dimapur – Guwahati – Kolkata flights and improvement of Dimapur Airport facilities.
Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang and Neiphiu Rio together met the Civil Aviation Minister, Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, in New Delhi today to highlight the connectivity problems of the State. They also met Union DONER Minister Gen. VK Singh.
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