From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: If the railway budget had only added to the blistering prices in the landlocked North East by increasing the freight rate, the general budget did nothing to balm the alienated region.
There were no major sops or projects announced for the region which has been represented in the Parliament by none other than Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh since 1991.
Normally, some big announcements are made in the general budget for the region with all the eight states going to polls some time or the other.
But this time no election is due in the region this year after Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura polls ended last week. General elections are due only next year and even in that case only Assam sends 20 MPs to the Lok Sabha and about half that number from the other states.
Incidentally, Assam is also the only state which got some benefits from this year’s union budget. The budget allocated Rs 100 crore grants to Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati campus, in addition to the Rs 85 crore sanctioned by the Union Ministry of DoNER in the last fiscal as an institution of excellence.
The Finance Minister has announced a new water way for the region. He also lauded Assam for boosting agriculture production as part of second green revolution.
Chidambaram has focused on boosting regional connectivity between the North Eastern States and neighbouring South East Asia. He focused on boosting regional connectivity between the North Eastern States and neighbouring South East Asia.
“Multi-lateral development banks are keen to assist in efforts to promote regional connectivity. Combining the Look East Policy and the interests of the North Eastern States, I propose to seek the assistance of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to build roads in the North Eastern States and connect them to Myanmar,” he proposed.
The Budgetary allocation for the Ministry of DoNER has been hiked to Rs 2030.97 crore from Rs 1,750 crore allocated last year. Allocation for the North Eastern Council (NEC) has also been hiked to Rs 713 crore. The grant from the Central Pool of Resources for the NER has increased to Rs 948 crore from Rs 775 crore allotted in 2012-2013.
The region also received funds from other ministries especially from the Tribal Affairs, Water Resources and Home Affairs.
