SHILLONG: In line with several chief ministers and governors of the North East, NEC secretary Ram Muivah admitted that several decisions taken at the government level regarding NEC schemes should have been first brought to the plenary, the highest decision making body. Speaking to reporters after the culmination of the 67th Plenary on Tuesday, Muivah said during the two-day meeting, the chief ministers and governors had expressed unhappiness over the Centre bypassing the NEC plenary.
One of the decisions of the Centre was related to the recommendations of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) under the Ministry of Finance to continue the NEC schemes only till 2020.
Muivah said the plenary should have been taken into confidence.
Besides the chief ministers of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and governor PB Acharya had said the decision of EFC to put on hold all the new projects sanctioned from April 2017 may not prove beneficial since the northeastern states have meager resources and the financial support of NEC and DoNER was necessary. The chief ministers pointed out that whatever projects have been retained by NEC during 2017-18 should be continued and sanctioned for the greater interest of the region.
Another decision of the Centre was the introduction of a new NEC scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet on March 28 this year bypassing NEC.
The chief ministers also stressed the need to have flexibility in the implementation of the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme that has replaced the Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources.
Another concern was that the budget of Rs 4,500 crore sanctioned from 2017-18 to 2019-2020 is too less for the region’s development.
When asked about the new decisions, Muivah said, “NEC plenary is a supreme decision making body and whatever decisions taken by the Centre related to NEC should have been first brought to the plenary.”
He added that the Union home minister, who is the chairman of NEC, had assured that a committee will address the concerns of the members.
Jitendra denies allegation
However, DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh denied allegations that chief ministers were unhappy with the Centre bypassing NEC. Instead he said it was the first time in 40 years that a home minister has chaired the plenary session and “this has added extra advantage to discuss law and order and inter-state conflicts besides the issues of drugs and drug trafficking”. On budget allocation, the Union minister said it has been increased and even the funding pattern for central schemes have been made 100:0 whereas the funding pattern for other three hilly states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir is still 90:10. “The financial empowerment for NEC has increased and the budget for the council has gone up by 28 per cent,” he added.
