Shillong, Feb. 20: Governors and chief ministers of the Northeast today came down hard on Delhi for slashing the North Eastern Council (NEC) budget for 2003-04. The department for Development of the Northeastern Region (Doner) had announced that the annual plan allocation of the NEC had been downsized to Rs 395 crore.
Cutting across party lines, chief ministers attending the NEC?s 49th annual meet here ? as well as governors ? were unanimous in their view that ?money matters in developing the Northeast?. They added that the sooner the Centre releases the funds the better.
The high-profile meeting was attended by all governors and the chief ministers of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya, apart from the secretary for Doner and senior NEC officials.
A resolution was passed today by the seven governors and five chief ministers to submit a ?fresh memorandum? to the Prime Minister, the deputy Prime Minister and the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission to restore the budget. The meeting expressed ?unhappiness at the unprecedented cut in the NEC?s allocation.?
Assam governor Ajai Singh, who is the NEC chairman, told mediapersons after the meeting that the resolution would be submitted to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by Nagaland chief minister Nephiu Rio in New Delhi tomorrow.
Following Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi?s lead, the meeting also opposed the proposal from the Union human resource development ministry seeking exemption for earmarking 10 per cent of its funds towards the Northeast.
Echoing Gogoi?s demand for restructuring the council, chief ministers of Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya stressed the ?urgent need? to revitalise the NEC as a regional planning body. Most of the chief ministers were also against the continuation of governors in the council.
?There is a glaring anomaly between the NEC budget projection of Rs 1,000 crore for 2004-05 and the allocation of Rs 500 crore projected in the supplementary agenda,? Rio asserted.
Later in the day, Union minister for telecommunications Arun Shourie ascribed the reason for the cut in the council budget to the fact that the funds earmarked for development of the region under the Tenth Plan outlay were not utilised.
Shourie, a former Doner minister himself, was here to address a BJP election campaign. He also said if the states in the Northeast improved their performance so far as timely utilisation of the funds is concerned, then the Centre would look into the demand to restore the NEC?s budget to its original shape and size. ?Central funds should be utilised in a proper manner,? he reiterated.