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Chairman of Nagaland State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (NSMDC) and MLA Thomas Lotha called for optimising the available natural resources of the State to counter the growing Chinese influence in South East Asian markets.Addressing the officials of the Directorate of Geology and Mining (DGM) and other members from different organisations on the occasion of the 33rd State Geological Programming Board (SGPB) meeting today, Lotha said the State is blessed with mineral deposits such as limestone, sulphite ores, coal, sandstone, slate, petroleum and natural gas etc that planning is one important strategy in any undertaking,
Lotha also pointed out anomalies in research works saying all researches in the past were confined to the Brahmaputra valley alone while the rest of the Northeast region was left unattended to.
Lotha also questioned the wisdom behind the Government of India on imposing restriction on geographical mapping to assess the mineral deposits in some sections of the region, particularly in remote parts of the Northeast.
He was confident that the members would seriously deliberate on the exploration and development of mineral resources of the State, including geo scientific works, and also take up necessary steps in highlighting the Centre-State relationship in the matter of control, management and development of minerals particularly for a special status State like Nagaland.
Commenting on the recent fallout between the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the State government over exploration of mineral oil, Thomas Lotha hoped that wisdom would prevail which will enable Nagaland to proceed with the exploration, exploitation and development of PNG under NPNGR 2012.
Among other dignitaries who spoke on the occasion included DGM Secretary Bendang Longchari, DGM Director SK Kenye and OSD OK Temjen.