SHILLONG: The secretary of the North Eastern Council (NEC), Ram Muivah, has called for making the council a think tank besides strengthening it.
Responding to queries about Tura MP Conrad Sangma’s statement where he had expressed concern that the council had been reduced to a mere funding agency, Muivah said he agreed with the Tura MP and added that NEC should not become mere funding agency but it should become a think tank like World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
“We should be able to give a road map for the North East but before that the Council has to be strengthened first. With the existing manpower we have, we may not play that kind of role effectively and we need more subject experts,” he said.
“If you want good people, their salary has to be market driven,” he added.
Admitting that it is difficult to attract subject experts, Muivah added that employees with good quality in other agencies like ADB, UNDP are getting an average salary of Rs 80 lakh per year whereas NEC’s salary is less than Rs 10 lakh per year. He also informed that the employees of the Council are Central Government who are on deputation and the Council cannot even recruit officers from State Governments as recruitment rules are very strict.
Earlier, Sangma had expressed concern over the fact that the budget for the NEC has remained at Rs 700 crore since the time of its inception which, he observed, was very less for an agency which looks after the development activities of the NE states.
