Former bureaucrat M.P. Bezbaruah has resigned from the North Eastern Council (NEC) - the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the region - after the central government asked him to step down, he told IANS on Monday.
The former bureaucrat, who headed the Bezbaruah Committee that looked into the issues concerning people of northeast region living in other parts of India, said his resignation has been accepted.
He said he quit after coming to know that the central government is appointing two new people to the NEC, including one in his place.
Bezbaruah, appointed by the erstwhile UPA government, told IANS: "Yes, I have resigned. I have given my resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I today (Monday) got to know that it has been accepted."
"I was told to resign as the government was in a mood to appoint their own people in the agency. The NEC has a very important role in the development of the northeast and I feel that whoever comes as its member should be very much focused and have a pro-northeast view," he said.
Bezbaruah, a 1964 batch IAS officer, headed the Bezbaruah Committee which was set up in the wake of the killing of Arunachal Pradesh youth Nido Tania in Delhi in 2014.
He submitted a 82-page report to the union home ministry.
The report gave a grim picture of the nature and extent of discrimination and attacks against the people of northeast in other parts of the country. However, the provisions of the report still remain far from being implemented.
Bezbaruah, who served in several places including Mizoram and Assam, said the central government needs to pay heed to the issues of proper coordination, infrastructure in some of the remotest parts of the northeast and exploration of opportunities for trade through the northeast region.
Bezbaruah, who had served as the union tourism secretary under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is also the permanent honorary representative of United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
