Mooshahary rues underdevelopment of North-East
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Governor RS Mooshahary has said the North-East has remained underdeveloped because the funds allotted by the Centre are going to wrong hands.
Considering the amount of money the region has received so far from the Centre, Governor said that there should have been a great change as far as the development of the region is concerned.
Mooshahary said this at a day-long workshop on ‘Linking Budding Entrepreneurs with Government Schemes and Markets’ here on Tuesday.
The workshop was organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
Stressing on the need of introducing an “evergreen revolution” to enhance agricultural productivity and to ensure food security in the country, Governor said, “It is pity that the agriculture sector has not received the desired attention from the respective state governments despite the region having huge potentials in this sector.”
“We have a separate ministry, several institutions like NeDFi, NE Agricultural Marketing Corporation, NEC, NaBARD, NERAMAC, yet the region has only grown 1.5 per cent land under agriculture although we occupy 8 per cent land space of the country,” he said.
“Agriculture and agriculture marketing need to be re-oriented to respond to the market needs and consumer preferences’ and to achieve this, opportunities like government schemes should be made available to the farming community,” he said.
“At the moment people in the region are taking up farming not by choice but out of compulsion,” Mooshahary said adding that there was an urgency to take the necessary measures in order to attract farmers to this sector by making it more viable.
“To bring about this paradigm shift, I also feel that the delivery system should be improved,” he said.
Lamenting that farmers are the most exploited lot in the country, Mooshahary said, “It is a reality that marginal farmers do not get anything from the government. To get a Rs 30,000 loan from a bank in NE, one has to spend half of it in going up and down in the process”.
Calling upon financial institutions to be ‘pro-farmer’, Mooshahary recalled how banking had been neglected here.
“In NE, there are only 2,148 bank branches of a total of 81,090 banks branches in the country,” he said.
The gap resulted in low CD ratio in the NE hovering at 36.2 per cent as compared to 69 or 70 per cent across the country, he said.
Other who spoke on the occasion include Additional Chief Secretary PBO Warjri and North Eastern Hill Region (ICAR Regional Centre), Umiam director Dr SV Ngachan.