GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday called upon the regional planning body North Eastern Council (NEC) to address its procedural sluggishness in releasing funds to speed up development of the region.
“As NEC is the nodal agency to fund key development projects in the NE States, the delay in sanctioning projects and procedural sluggishness in releasing funds must be addressed to speed up project implementation” Sonowal said addressing the North Eastern Council’s 67th plenary session at State Convention Centre in Shillong, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Sonowal also suggested releasing of funds by NEC in two installments in lump sum for a year instead of scheme-wise release.
Highlighting the need to harness the potential of the region to become an Information Technology Enables Schemes (ITES) and Information Technology (IT) hub which is crippled by poor internet bandwidth, Sonowal urged the NEC to support BSNL in payment of rentals for initial few years so that it can bring high speed internet bandwidth to Assam and other North Eastern States from Cox Bazar landing station in Bangladesh through fibre optics. “This is going to be a game changer in propelling the region to achieve fast paced growth and catapult NE as an IT hub of the SE Asian region,” he opined.
“The NEC can also take up with External Affairs Ministry to simplify existing visa regime including introduction of provisions like visa-on-arrival to improve people-to-people contact and facilitate easy movement within SE Asia for furthering tourism, trade and commerce”, Sonowal suggested.
Referring to opening of consulates of Bangladesh and Bhutan in Guwahati, he pitched for more such consulates of ASEAN countries in the city and relaxation of restricted area permit required for coming to North Eastern Region for the ASEAN countries. He also called on NEC to host a festival in each of the ASEAN countries to project the rich heritage, culture, handlooms, handicrafts, industrial and tourist potential of all the North Eastern States.
Sonowal said that the NE region remained backward for so many decades in-spite of being endowed with immense natural resources and this scenario is now all set to change with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make North East the ‘New Engine’ of India’s growth. Implementation of Act East Policy by the central government was a big step towards fulfilling this vision and the region would derive huge benefits out of this policy in terms of tourism, investment and trade, he asserted.
The chief minister also urged the NEC and the Ministry of DoNER to take up issues of infrastructure projects like roads, waterways, airways and telecom for better connectivity with South East Asia with cooperation of the concerned Ministries of Government of India.
Thanking the Prime Minister for increasing the minimum support price of paddy to Rs 1750 per quintal, Sonowal asserted that all NE states are taking steps to achieve the target set by Prime Minister Modi to double farmers’ income by 2022. In this regard, he mentioned Assam Government’s ambitious scheme Chief Minister Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana with financial outlay of Rs. 30,000 crore to be implemented in all 25,425 villages of the State.
Sonowal, during his speech, also put forth proposals for setting up a North East Organic Agriculture University by NEC for which Assam would provide land, an organic certification agency for the whole region and he also called for facilitating growth of bamboo-based industries here.
Saying that for swift implementation of Act East Policy strong and robust transportation networks in the region is most important, Sonowal informed that centre has declared 15 new national highways with length of 1025 kms apart from the 31 State roads with aggregate length of 1846 kms have also been declared as national highway ‘in principle’. But he stated that implementing agency NHIDCL’s work is far from satisfactory and sought centre’s intervention in directing NHIDCL to speed up construction and at the same time maintain the existing roads in traffic worthy condition till completion of the projects.
The chief minister also highlighted the need for inter-state as well as international cooperation for tackling insurgency activities in the region and efficient handling of security threats emanating from various terrorist outfits. He also called on NEC to play an active role in chalking out programmes for promoting brotherhood amongst communities living on both sides of inter-State borders for peaceful resolution of border disputes between the states.