Amit Shah to chair plenary session of North Eastern Council on Aug 3-4 in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the plenary session of North Eastern Council (NEC) on August 3 and 4 in Guwahati.

The NEC was restructured in July last year through the nomination of the Home Minister as its chairman. The MoS (Independent Charge), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh met the MPs of North East MPs Forum which included the newly elected Lok Sabha MPs representing North Eastern states and the members of Rajya Sabha in New Delhi on Thursday.

Singh said that the government will act for improving the lives of North Eastern people in close coordination with the elected representatives from the states of the region. He said that DoNER is the only region-based ministry in the Government. In the past five years, the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given due priority to the development of this region, he added.

He said the procedures laid down for DPRs have been simplified so as to expedite the execution of projects in the region and to curb the unnecessary delay. The Minister added that the Chief Ministers and Resident Commissioners of different states based in Delhi have been requested to coordinate with DoNER Ministry and follow up with the officials about the development projects of various states.

He further said that then issues related to enhancement of budgetary allocation for development of North Eastern states are being discussed with the Finance Ministry. Dr Jitendra Singh said that in departure from the earlier practice of 90:10 funding of Northeast projects under NLCPR flagship scheme of the Ministry, implying 90% funds from Centre and 10% from the respective State, the Union Cabinet has agreed that under the new scheme, North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), the entire 100% of the funding is borne by the Centre, which results in a huge relief to the exchequer of the State Government and also puts an end to the frequent requests received from the State Governments about lack of funds for them to contribute their share.

Secretary (DoNER) Dr Inder Jit Singh said that DoNER Ministry plays a coordinating role to act as an interface between the NE states and Line Ministries. He added that DoNER is the only Ministry with territorial jurisdiction. He briefed that Chief Nodal Officers and Nodal officers have been appointed for each of the North Eastern states and line ministries. He also said that Inter-Ministerial committees have been constituted by DoNER Ministry for important sectors such as Roads, Civil Aviation & Tourism, Livlihood, Piggery, Medicinal & Aromatic Plants and Health & Nutrition.

The Secretary briefed that members about the major schemes and organisations of North eastern region such as North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), Hill Area Development Programme (HIDP), North East Road Sector Development Scheme, North East Rural Livlihood Projects, North Eastern Region Community Resources Management Project, North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd., North East Handicrafts & Handlooms Development Corporation Ltd. etc. He informed members that each non-exempted Ministry has to allocate 10% of their Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the development of North Eastern states. He added that Rs 1,83,036 crore expenditure has been incurred by the non-exempted ministries plus Railways during the last 5 years, while the budget allocation for 2019-20 is Rs 56,530 crore.

In addition to the above, A NITI Forum for North East has been set up in February, 2018. The first meeting of the forum took place on April 10, 2018 at Agartala where constraints were identified for sustainable economic growth. The second meeting held on December 4, 2018 at Guwahati made recommendations on the development of Bamboo, tea, dairy and tourism in North East.