Nagaland: Rural Development minister Metsubo Jamir calls for innovation to protect environment

Rural Development minister Metsubo Jamir has appealed to engineering fraternity to adopt innovative systems for protecting environment, while also ensuring that development did not stop.
Addressing a two-day Indian Engineers’ Federation (INDEF) North-eastern Region (NER) Mid-term-cum-Annual Council Meeting organised by Federation of Nagaland State Engineering Service Association (FONSESA) here on Friday, he said the region lagged behind in development.
He reminded the engineers from the region to ensure that local needs took priority over everything else.
He acknowledged INDEF, as an apex body of nearly two lakh engineers in public and private sectors along with those self-employed, for contributing to nation building process in various capacities and helping the country keep pace with the developed nations.
Jamir said engineers were directly contributing to the overall well-being of the society, adding that their contribution to make lives better was well recognised and appreciated by all.
He commented that their contribution would impact government initiatives in the Northeast and would be a deciding factor for success or failure of these initiatives.
With the Act East Policy, he noted that that the engagement of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) had become a central pillar of India’s foreign policy and the North-eastern States played an important role as a bridge between India and ASEAN countries.
In his keynote address, INDEF NER president Pura Tupe highlighted the activities of the federation.
He regretted that there had been continuous erosion in the status and career prospects of engineers in India since independence.
He said the role of engineers and technocrats in nation building had been recognised time and again by one and all.
He mentioned that bureaucracy should work as a facilitator for advancement of scientific and technological development and in no way should be allowed to dominate over the professionals.
Tupe however said he was shocked to observed that engineering services all over the country were lagging behind the civil services in respect of status, pay structure and carrier progression.
Towards this, he claimed that INDEF was trying to highlight its three-point demands, which included heading and manning of technical departments by technical personnel, removal of disparity in carrier avenues of engineers vis-a-vis administrative services and constitution of Engineering Commission.
Engineers-in-chief, chief engineers and engineers from the eight North-eastern States are participating in the two-day event.