By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 12: At a time when the political discourse in this country has become asinine and boorish, Union Minister for Development of the North East Region (DoNER), Jyotiraditya Scindia stands out for his genteel manner and a rare alacrity to honour the cultural troupe that had stood waiting for hours at the North Eastern Council Secretariat to welcome him. He delighted the ensemble that was dressed in their finery to welcome him by beating the drum.
At the NEC, Scindia unfolded the North East Vision 2047 which has come at least four years after Vision 2020 which was released by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008, had lapsed. Scindia also launched the North Eastern Region Agri-Commodity E-Connect app which would connect farmers directly with the buyers.
In an exclusive interview with The Shillong Times, Scindia unfolded the ministry’s plans for the North East.
ST: Mr Scindia, tell us something about North East Vision 2047 and what this would mean for Meghalaya in particular?
I had a very detailed, very comprehensive and a very fruitful meeting with the Chief Minister of Meghalaya today. We spent close to three hours, and the thrust of the meeting from my end, and fortuitously from his end as well, was not only the basis of the 4-5 schemes that are run by DoNER, and evaluation of those schemes, but what is our plan for Meghalaya, and what is in the larger context is our plan for the Northeast. We need to evaluate the comparative and competitive advantages of each state, separately, intra-northeast with its neighbours with the north-east. We need to look at the North East intra India vis-à-vis the 36 states and union territories, and with the rest of the world, and based on that strategy come up with areas of focus that each state should look at.
There may be some level of complementarity of those strengths in two or three states. They may all share those strengths and that’s fine. Once we have somewhat of a broad understanding of what those comparative and competitive advantages are we will outline the steps required to achieve those goals, be it in infrastructure, human resource development social development etc. That was the thrust of our discussion.
Instead of looking at DoNER funding, multiple small ticket projects, its important to look at one theme, which the Prime Minister has always talked about which is 100 percent saturation in one thrust area. Its important to identify those areas. They could be common across all states; they could also be different in different states, and ensure 100 percent saturation across the North-east, on that one particular parameter. It could be drinking water, or mobile network connectivity….
ST: In the North East projects suffer from times and cost overruns will your ministry monitor projects more strictly?
The states have to outline what and where the infrastructure needs to be put up. It could be roads or whatever it is that each state feels. That is for each state to decide. The thrust area is to look at ensuring equity to a certain minimum level, amongst all regions in a particular state. What I have noticed is that the border areas are left behind and neglected in that equitable growth paradigm and therefore my ministry will make sure that the border areas are looked at as a thrust area.
All of this is in line with what the Prime Minister’s vision for the north-east is. The North-east is very close to his heart. He has always believed that the vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, a Viksit Bharat will only be fulfilled when we have a Viksit and Atmanirbhar North-East.
And therefore there has been a fundamental paradigm change in the way development in the NE has been looked at, which is why you have seen a budget allocation increase from 24,000 crores in 2014-15 to over a lakh crore today, in terms of the 10 percent Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of each 54 line ministries, and that is a 4x-5x increase which is why you have seen the DoNER ministry budget go up from Rs 2289 crores in 2014-15 to almost 6000 crores today.
Never before has the NE been given so much prominence and so much focus with close to Rs 44,000 crores of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana for roads to be made after 67 years. You have the railway system finally reaching several parts of the North East roughly about 8 years ago, in terms of goods trains. In terms of airports the North East has grown from 9 airports to 17 airports.
ST: In your tenure as Civil Aviation Minister, air connectivity has improved so will you continue liaise with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to improve the airports like those in Meghalaya to allow bigger aircrafts to land?
My job is to be that of a facilitator. It’s not limited to only the Ministry of Civil Aviation which I held in my former charge. My job is to make sure that I take the demands from the eight states to every central government ministry, be it roads and highways, agriculture; be it Jal Shakti and cross border trade. That has been my message and plea that we need to work together to be able to bring about this change. That was echoed in my meeting in the NEC, just now. In fact, the NEC had put up a wonderful presentation in terms of the vision for 2047 by Prof Mahendra Lama, which fortunately echoed a lot of what I have been promulgating, and proposing as well.
ST: What is the purpose of the NERACE App launched today? How is it going to help farmers who have been at the receiving end of the system?
The whole concept of the App is to really connect the farmers to the market-place, and bring the market-place directly to the farmers.
The concept really is to dis-intermediate the intermediaries and bring value directly to the farmers. Right now if you look at the agri-value chain or let’s say the handicraft or the handloom value chain, the biggest part of the value chain is taken by the traders and the intermediaries. The producer does not get as much he/she should. The NERACE app will ensure that the greatest value goes to the farmer/producer.