Fernandes, who visited the North-Eastern states (Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Assam) last week, said specific issues had been raised during his meetings with governors and chief ministers which had a bearing on the defence ministry and he intended to initiate action on these matter very shortly. The defence minister said recruitment from the North-East into the armed forces would be doubled and more recruitment centres opened as the best guarantee of the security of the country was the greater participation of all regions in the defence services.

For the armed forces personnel, he said that it had been decided in principle that they would be given counter-insurgency allowance along with the field allowance wherever applicable. At present, the forceseither received counter-insurgency allowance or field allowance.

Fernandes, who addressed troops at several places in the North-East, said on their demand it has been decided to operate two courier flights a week between guwahati and delhi to ferry soldiers going home on leave. In addition, there would also be a weekly courier from Imphal to Guwahati.

In consultation with the railway ministry, it had also been decided to run more special trains and special coaches attached to existing ones for defence personnel. The defence ministry would also be acquiring coaches to be attached to dedicated trains, he added.

Fernandes said at present the recruitment was based on a percentage of the recruitable male population between the age of 16 and 25 and the plan was to have twice the recruiting quota for the northeast. The additional recruitment would be made from the gap that arises in the quotas of other states which remain unfilled.

He said for employment generation in the North-East, the small scaleindustry in particular would be encouraged to produce goods required by the army.