SHILLONG, MAY 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government has been focusing on development of north eastern region through its pro-active “Act East Policy” and the union government has earmarked more than Rs.30,000crore for the region and stressed the need to ensure that the money is spent well for the development of the region.
Modi was addressing the 65th Plenary Session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in the presence of the Union Minister of State for DoNER and NEC Chairman Dr. Jitendra Singh at the State Convention Centre on his maiden visit to the state as Prime Minister on Friday.
The two day Plenary Session was attended among others by the governors of North Eastern States V. Shanmuganathan, PB. Acharya, Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma, Shrinivas Dadasaheb Patil, Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa and Tathagata Roy and Chief Ministers Dr. Mukul Sangma, Sarbananda Sonowal, O. Ibobi Singh, Kalikho Pul, Pawan Chamling, Lal Thanhawla and T. R. Zeliang and members C.K. Das and Prof.Gangmumei Kamei.
Modi informed the gathering that the Centre was focusing on reducing the isolation of the region by improving all round connectivity through road, rail, telecom, power and waterways sectors. “If the western region of the country can develop, if other regions of the country can develop, I see no reason why the North East region of the country cannot develop”, he said.
Modi was of the opinion that the northern eastern region is very important to the country for strategic reasons and said it is his conviction that the union government has to bring this region at par with the other developed regions of the country”.
Stating his belief in cooperative and competitive federalism, Modi said the chief ministers had said that adequate authority and resources should be given to states that are strong and want to grow further, and assistance to those states that are not so strong. He said, “In this regard and based on the report of the Committee of Chief Ministers, we have decided to continue to provide assistance in the ratio of 90:10 for core Central schemes and 80:20 for non-core schemes to the North Eastern States” he added.
Modi said the NEC also needs to introspect and assess the extent to which it had been able to achieve its objectives, to re-orient and upgrade itself as a state of the art resource centre for NE states enabling the states and implementing agencies to properly plan and execute projects and promote research and provide strategic policy vision for the region.
Modi also suggested that NEC could look at developing a specialized domain expertise either by itself or through an agency model to assist states and central ministries in their development planning and problem solving needs. This, he said, would enable imbibing of good governance and best practices in the region. He also said it could consider focusing on issues of livelihood, entrepreneurship, venture funds, start-ups and skill development for generating jobs.
The Prime Minister also said that taking advantage of North East as the gateway to South East Asia, “we are opening up both road and rail routes to our neighbouring countries” for economic development of the region.
Modi said a specialized highways construction agency for the North East – “National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation” has set up its branch offices, one each in every North Eastern State. As of today, it is implementing 34 projects in NE States covering a length of 1001 kms at a total cost of over Rs. 10,000 crore, he said. In the road sector, he said there was a need to keep in view the special land and weather conditions of this area and to be careful in using appropriate technologies in the construction of roads in the region.
He also informed the meeting of the improved internet connectivity project for the North East in collaboration with Bangladesh which would make available 10 GB of seamless alternate bandwidth and benefit the region tremendously.
For development of railways in the region, Indian Railways has commissioned about 900 kms of broad gauge in the last two years, leaving only about 50 km meter gauge lines to be converted in 2016-17, he said, adding that a 132 km part of third alternative connectivity route to North East – New Maynaguri-Jogighopa – has also been commissioned.
Acknowledging the tremendous scope for adventure tourism in the region, the Prime Minister stated that if developed and promoted well, it can emerge as the biggest employer in the region. He said that the NE states should try to make best use of thematic circuit for the North East region identified by the Union Ministry of Tourism to develop tourist circuits and added that the region could look into combining a few popular destinations of the neighbouring countries with their tourism circuits to further attract tourists.
The Prime Minister also acknowledged the potential of the youth of the region and their language skills and said that the union government has approved North East BPO promotion scheme in the Digital India programme for creation of employment opportunities.
He urged upon the NE states to get these BPOs operationalized in their respective states to promote growth and provide jobs to the youth. He also said that NEC could play an important role in development of organic farming in the region. “The North East can become the organic food basket for the country”, he added
Stating that a there is a large rural population in NE region, Modi informed of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Mission initiated by the union government to bring in economic, social and basic development of the rural areas in a cluster model and said that NE states should endeavour to make use of this mission for the development of the rural areas.-By Our Reporter
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