GUWAHATI, Feb 16 ? The North Eastern Council (NEC), now a regional planning body, wants that the amount slashed from its current year?s annual plan outlay should be restored to it, said NEC chairman and Governor of the State Lt Gen (Rtd) Ajai Singh here today. He was addressing a press conference here this afternoon to apprise the media of the issues being discussed in the forthcoming 49th meeting of the NEC at Shillong.
The Central Government had slashed an amount of Rs 104.71 crore from the approved budget amount of Rs 500 crore of the NEC for the fiscal 2003-04. Though the NEC is yet to assess the adverse impact of the cut on its activities, Singh said that it was obvious that it would affect the over all activities of the Council. He also said that he was not aware of the reason as to why the Central Government resorted to the cut in the approved allocation for the Council.
NEC secretary PL Thanga, who was also present, said that the Council had already made sanctions worth around Rs 400 crore and the sanctioned amounts had already been released to the concerned States. But the recent development concerning the Central allocation to the Council has made the latter take recourse to adjusting the sanctions for the past about three weeks.
In reply to a question on the comment made by the Mizoram Governor on the allocations made to the North East region, the NEC chairman said that the Mizoram Governor made the comment in a different context. The Mizoram Governor had said in his inaugural address at an agricultural seminar in the city on February 13, ?We can no longer say that the North East is neglected by the Centre. On the contrary, it is the spoilt child of India?. He also stated that money had never been a constraint in the North East. But money has been misused, said the Mizoram Governor.
When asked to apprise of the receipt and utilisation ratio of the NEC, Thanga said that the ratio was 50 per cent this year. This is by far the best compared to the past three years, he said. The Council has been spending 85 per cent of its funds over the years on infrastructure development like construction of roads and boosting up power generation capacity of the region. For, infrastructure is the first mandate of the NEC, he said.
On agriculture, the Council is spending below one per cent of its funds, but it will grow to five per cent, Thanga said. Governor Singh said that though the Council had been attaching high priority to agriculture, agricultural activities were not converted into commercial ventures in the NE region. It is related to the mindset of the people and the NEC cannot change the mindset of the people, he said.
Meanwhile, the NEC chairman said, as a consequence to the NEC?s drawing up a roadmap for the region?s development, the Central Government had opted for revitalising the NEC. The Department for Development of the North East Region (DONER) has already engaged a twelve-member committee with P P Srivastava as its chairman, to study the revitalisation process of the Council and also the ways to give it a new shape and cutting edge. The Committee is finalising its report and the NEC expects that it will recommend steps to make the Council more powerful and functional. He rejected the idea that creation of the DONER has affected the prospect of the NEC as a regional planning body.
The 49th meeting of the NEC being held at Shillong on 20th instant will discuss the ways and means to implement the NEC road map more effectively. The thrust areas of development of tourism, power sector, road connectivity, bamboo and products based on it and food processing, the impact of the budget cut and the revitalisation of the Council will be on the agenda of the Shillong meeting, he said.
In reply to another question from the media persons, Thanga said that the NEC was planning to introduce new varieties of bamboo with high productivity to increase productivity of the region?s bamboo. This is being done under the bamboo mission, he said. The vision of the mission is to help the region produce bamboo worth about Rs 10,000 crore after ten years, he said.