Lt Gen Kalita said: Northeast has improved security matters

KOLKATA: The security situation in the Northeast has improved considerably in recent years and the withdrawal of AFSPA from some areas of the Northeast states is not hampering Army operations, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Rana Pratap Kalita said. . Eastern Command said on Friday.

He said that in the eastern theater the army is working on developing the village as a model to ensure that there is no displacement in search of livelihood.
“The internal situation across the Northeast has improved considerably in recent years. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been withdrawn from some districts of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. The removal of AFSPA was not arbitrary. With stakeholders After much deliberation, it was withdrawn.

“The removal of special powers is not in any way hampering the operations of the army,” he said at a meet-the-press at the Press Club, Kolkata.
The AFSPA is a parliamentary act that gives special powers to the Indian armed forces and state and paramilitary forces in areas classified as ‘disturbed areas’ with the aim of maintaining law and order in disturbed areas.

Referring to the army’s model village initiative, he said it was announced in last year’s Union Budget and was an ongoing process aimed at ensuring that people from border villages in search of livelihood There should be no migration.

Lt Gen Kalita said that steps have been taken to provide education, health care and basic means of livelihood in these villages.
“Work has started in two to three villages in Kaho (in eastern Arunachal Pradesh). In the eastern theater we have identified 130 villages and about the same number have been identified in eastern Ladakh and Uttarakhand.