As part of confidence building measure for students and professionals of the NE region in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the North Eastern Council (NEC) has decided to build hostels to accommodate youths from the region in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Mysore.
Constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament, the NEC is the nodal agency for economic and social development of the region consisting of eight states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
"We are building a 1700-seated hostel for both boys and girls in Bangalore in collaboration with the University of Bangalore," NEC secretary U K Sangma told reporters on Monday.
The hostel for students studying in various colleges affiliated to the university would be built at its Jnana Bharathi Campus, he said.
The university would have special security arrangement for NE students, said the university's registrar, Mylarappa.
The university currently has 9000 students from NE, mostly from Manipur, in about 200 colleges affiliated to it.
Apart from Bangalore, the NEC has expressed its desire to build hostels in Mumbai, Pune and Mysore. He said the NEC has initiated works on construction of a 500-seat girls' hostel in Delhi University in collaboration with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. While a 501-seated working women's hostel was also constructed at Jasola, Delhi, in association with the Ministry of Women & Child Development at a cost of Rs 17.44 crore, a 70-seat students' home for women was built at B B Marg, Delhi. A 500-seat women's hostel at South Campus of Delhi University for NE students is under consideration, he said. A North East Cultural Centre was set up in Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, New Delhi, to make people aware of the cultural heritage of NE states.