SHILLONG: As many as six crucial sectors were taken away from NEC by the Centre.
An official source said on Sunday that the Union Cabinet had decided to take away six crucial sectors, power, irrigation and flood control, water supply, sports, school education and primary and secondary healthcare from the mandate of NEC.
In addition, the schemes for Skill Development and the Viability Gap Funding for Air Transport were also transferred to the Ministry of Skill Development and the Ministry of Civil Aviation respectively.
However, the removal of schemes for skill development, from NEC’s mandate appears contradictory to Para 2.5 of the revised NEC guidelines which states: “NEC shall focus on issue in emerging areas of livelihood entrepreneurship, venture funds, start-up and skill development enabling in generating jobs.”
Moreover, the role of NEC in crucial sectors such as road construction has been limited to building of inter-state roads.
There is a demand from several quarters to restore the sectors taken away from NEC.
Multiplicity of committees
Another cause for concern is that clearance of projects has to go through four different committees, PIC (Project Identification Committee) chaired by Secretary, DoNER, SLEC (State Level Empowered Committee) chaired by Chief Secretaries, SEC (Sectoral Empowered Committee) chaired by Member, NEC and SFC (Standing Finance Committee) chaired by Secretary, DoNER which is a time consuming process.
Sources said that a committee takes at least 3 months thereby delaying the implementation of projects.
Some states have already demanded to do away with various committees since NEC has engineers.
However, the committees may be relevant only for DoNER since it does not have engineers for vetting of project reports and technical sanctions.
There is already a suggestion that the Project Identification Committee should be chaired by Secretary, NEC since the projects belong to NEC and the Secretary, NEC should chair Standing Finance Committee within his delegated power of up to Rs 15 crore.
Another problem is that with the centralisation of function with DoNER, officers of NEC and the NE states have to go to Delhi very often for Standing Finance Committee meetings for every project which is above Rs 15 crore negating the concept of taking decision-making centre nearer to the region.
Dilution of functional autonomy
According to sources, it was felt that the functional autonomy of NEC intended by Parliament has been significantly diluted and the role of the Governing Body of NEC represented by Governors and Chief Ministers of NE states has also been undermined.
The functional autonomy of the NEC had enabled it to take up iconic projects and build institutions.
Sources said any changes in the scope and functioning of NEC should only be approved in the NEC plenary which is the supreme governing body of NEC and represented by the governors and chief ministers of NE states.
Further, governors may not be associated with Plenary Council as the chief ministers of all eight NE states can ably articulate the requirement of the region, sources added.
Vacancy in NEC
As far as NEC secretariat is concerned, out of a total sanctioned strength of 202, there are presently 66 vacancies which means that 33 per cent of the sanctioned posts are vacant. The Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ Gazetted posts are mainly deputation posts for which there are few applicants.
There is also suggestion that powers of the Pay and Accounts Office attached to the NEC need to be enhanced as in the present arrangement, all sanction orders of over Rs 50 lakh have to be physically sent to Delhi, which causes delays in processing sanctions.
