From CK Nayak
New Delhi: The poll-bound Northeastern states may have got something in the Railway Budget, but there is not much to cheer about in the General Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament on Friday.
The DoNER Ministry was allocated Rs 1929.33 crore for 2012-13 marginally higher than Rs 1762.58 crore last year. Out of this Rs 691 crore is meant for the North Eastern Council (NEC) while a higher allocation has been made for NEDFi (RS 879 crore), most of which will be spent in infrastructure development.
The non-lapsable pool of Central Resources got Rs 880 crore, an increase of only Rs 80 crore from last year. The region received funds for other major departments especially Home, Road Transport and Civil Aviation.
Mukherjee also announced weavers’ service centres in Mizoram and Nagaland. He also sanctioned Rs 500 crore as pilot scheme in the 12th plan for promotion and application of Geo-textile in the region.
Some of the major investment in Green Revolution in the eastern region will also benefit the NE region, Mukherjee said.
“There are some schemes which have been extended to areas with population of more than 1000 which will benefit the region, the Finance Minister said, while hoping that the National Population Register and Aadhar scheme will benefit the region.
There are ‘lump sum’ allocations for all major departments in the Northeastern region, the budget document said. The region would also benefit from programmes implemented in bordering areas starting from internal security to commerce and industries.
Both the Congress Ministers from the North East – Pawan Singh Ghatowar (DoNER) and Vincent H Pala (Minister of State for Water Resources and Minority Affairs) – have welcomed the budget.
While Pala said that it is a growth-oriented budget, Ghatowar said that the region will benefit from allocation of other sectors, mainly for Agriculture. The budget however was criticised by various quarters mainly the industries. There is nothing to revive the industries in the remote and backward region of the North East, various industrial houses operating in the region have said.
Biren Baishya, AGP MP from Assam and general secretary of the Northeast MPs Forum, said that the budget proposals are simply disappointing. There is virtually nothing for the region except bits and pieces, he said.
It may be noted that there were high expectations for the North Eastern region, but the budget has turned out to be dull, observers have said.
Three states – Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland are going to polls during the next budget period.