The 69th Plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) which was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah here yesterday concluded today.
The two-day NEC Plenary focused on all-round developmental plans for the North-East region and discussed about the progresses made so far of the various projects that have been implemented in the region.
Augmenting investments and improving rankings on ease of doing business also got deliberated upon prominently. In various technical sessions, discussion centred on the developmental projects related to livelihood, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, connectivity and other related areas in the North-East.
Addressing the valedictory session, Union DONER Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of developing the North East region and bringing it to the level of the other developed states.
Dr. Singh acknowledged that the North East has been put on a fast track of development under the leadership of the Prime Minister during the last six-seven years and this bears evidence in the form of the unanimous opinion across the country that North East has been put on a very fast track.
He also added that the expectation is very high and the Prime Minister wanted to achieve more than what have been achieved so far.
The DONER minister expressed his belief that with the dedication of all the states and the different ministries, North East will be able to overcome all challenges in the near future. He said that he takes pride in having been able to walk the talk and live up to the expectations, in fact, rising above all other expectations with the help of the DONER Ministry’s colleagues and all the stakeholders.
Dr. Singh patiently heard the presentations that were made by the senior officials of various ministries and departments of the Central government and requested the Secretaries of the Ministries to offer all possible assistance to the states of the North East.
Dr. Singh added that the North East region will lead the growth story of India, when the rest of the world is looking for economic resurgence through trade in post-pandemic times.
He also said that the North East region will be one of the favourite business destinations of India post-Covid-19 and bamboo is going to be the key pillar of the economic activities. He however asked all the states to equip themselves up to make optimum use of the favourable condition that the North East will have during the post Covid period.
The DONER minister urged all the states to utilise the funds that have been allotted by various ministries so that the benefits of the schemes reach to the last person.
He said that the rate of utilisation of funds under NEC has been encouraging and hoped that funds under other ministries allotted to the region shall also be brought to optimum utilisation.
During the full day session yesterday, Governors and Chief Ministers highlighted the achievements of the NEC and gave insights for shaping the development agenda of the region.
They emphasised that NEC being a regional planning body and a resource centre should play a major role in guiding the states towards achieving the goal of development at par with the rest of the country.
The creation of shared infrastructure, setting up of shared institutions and finding and pursuing common interests for all the eight states should continue to be the vision and objective of the NEC.
The members urged the government to introduce the concept of sister states in order to learn from experiences of more developed states in the country. They also stressed on the need to strengthen NEC with enhanced resources.
In their presentations, the Chief Secretaries of all North East states highlighted the progress made in various projects funded by the NEC. There were deliberations on the progress of ongoing projects of the NEC, outlays by Central ministries in the North East region and plans for the period Fifteenth Finance Commission cycle. They also gave valuable suggestions on increasing the scope of the NEC’s interventions in the region and improving the funds flow to the states.
The decisions and recommendations of the NEC Plenary will be sent to various ministries and departments of the Central and state governments for taking appropriate action.
