North Eastern Council meet to boost development in region

By IANS,

Agartala : The 61st meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC), a regional planning body, would be held in New Delhi Wednesday to finalise strategies for improving connectivity and other infrastructure in the region, officials said Tuesday.

The crucial summit would also draw an outline regarding the 12th five-year plan period (2012-17). The governors and chief ministers of all the eight northeastern states, including Sikkim, who are members of the council, would attend the summit.

"The NEC meeting would discuss and take decisions on issues pertaining to development of transport, connectivity, telecommunications, civil aviation, railways, fresh investment and other key sectors which are crucial to the economic growth of the region," a Tripura planning department official told IANS.

He said: "The ministries of tourism, railways, road transport and highways, civil aviation, and development of northeastern region (DoNER) would make special presentations in the meeting about their ongoing projects and future planning."

The NEC, now under the DoNER ministry that looks after both physical and social infrastructure development of the region, had released Rs.693 crore out of the total budgetary allocation of Rs.700 crore during the last fiscal, accounting for over 99 per cent release to the constituent states.

The 'NER Vision 2020' document, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2009, sought to spur investment, reduce poverty, enhance connectivity and bring the backward northeastern region on par with the rest of the country by 2020.

A total of Rs.14 trillion will be required to implement the giant project.

Chief ministers of the northeastern states have expressed their unhappiness on a number of occasions about the non-implementation of the 'NER Vision 2020'.