‘Centre Committed To Development of NorthEast’: Dr Jitendra Singh

‘Centre Committed To Development of NorthEast’: Dr Jitendra Singh

SHILLONG: Union Minister Amit Shah will chair the plenary session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Guwahati on August 3 and 4. This was disclosed by the Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (in charge), Dr Jitendra Singh while releasing the third issue of the ‘Newsletter’ of North Eastern Council (NEC) Shillong, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), here on Tuesday.

Dr Singh further said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the development of NE States has been on the priority of the Government. He added that the newly sworn-in Government is also committed to continue with the legacy of the development efforts of the last five years and work in the direction of improving infrastructure and living standards of NE people.

The Council is normally expected to meet at least twice a year. The first plenary meeting of the Restructured NEC (67th Plenary since inception) was held under the then Home Minister and Chairman, NEC on July 8-9, 2018 in Shillong. In July, 2018, the NEC has been restructured through the nomination of the Home Minister as the Chairman of NEC and the MoS (in charge) DoNER as the Vice-Chairman of NEC. The restructuring of NEC was undertaken with a view to have a forum to discuss issues such as boundary disputes, drug trafficking, smuggling of arms and ammunition, etc. which are usually discussed in the other Zonal Councils. The NE States are not part of any Zonal Council.

The North Eastern Council (NEC) was established by North Eastern Council Act, 1971 initially as apex level advisory body for securing balanced and coordinated development and facilitating effective co-ordination amongst seven States of North Eastern Region. Subsequent to the amendment of NEC Act in December, 2002, Sikkim was added as the eighth member State, and the NEC was mandated to function as a statutory Regional Planning Body for the North Eastern Region.

The newsletter highlighted some of the initiatives taken by the NEC during July, 2018 to March, 2019. The Newsletter is to be uploaded on the NEC website atwww.necouncil.gov.in. Dr Singh complimented the officers and staff of Ministry of DoNER and NEC for their efforts to improve the living condition of North Eastern States of the country. The Secretary, NEC, Ram Muivah and Secretary (DoNER) Dr Inder Jit Singh were also present on the occasion.

Over the last forty-seven years, NEC has been instrumental in setting up various iconic Institutes in the Region such as NEPA, NEEPCO, NERAMAC, NERIST, RIPAN, NERIWALM, RIMS etc.

Some of the major achievements of NEC are as under:

Since its inception, NEC has focused on improving connectivity of the region which has been a major bottleneck for all developmental activities. In its endeavour, the Council has contributed immensely towards the improvement of the inter-State connectivity in the region. A total of 10,911 kms of roads have been constructed with the NEC funding and handed over to the States for maintenance.

Till date, NEC has supported the installation of 694.5 MW of power plants and construction of 9,202 cicuit km of transmission and distribution lines.

NEC has also undertaken development work in various sectors like education, healthcare, agriculture, horticulture, tourism, industries etc.

A total of 11 Inter-State Bus terminus (ISBT) projects have been taken up across different States to ease out inter-state movement of people. Nine of these have been completed and two are under construction in Meghalaya and Manipur. To facilitate movement of essential goods, three numbers of Inter State Truck Terminus (two in Assam and one in Nagaland) have been completed.

Since inception, the NEC has contributed for the upgradation/strengthening of the infrastructure of the existing airports in the region. Improvement of the infrastructure in 5 major airports of the Regions namely, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Imphal and Umroi have been taken up in collaboration with Airport Authority of India on 60:40 (60% by NEC and 40% by AAI) basis. Out of these, the work for construction of three Hangers and Apron at LGBI Airport, Guwahati and Extension of Apron at Jorhat Airport have been completed.

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