From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Without coordinated matching investment and funding from the Centre the gap between the Northeastern region and rest of the country will rather widen instead of getting thinner.
Speaking at the 61st plenary meet of the North Eastern Council (NEC) here on Wednesday, Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister, Rowell Lyngdoh, said that the Centre should intervene in the region through the NEC for a balanced growth.
“I am apprehensive that going by the present trend, the gap between the NE and rest of the country will widen and we will never be able to catch up with the rest of the country,” he said.
The plenary was attended by governors and chief ministers of the Northeastern states. The plenary was preceded by a brain-storming session attended by dignitaries and experts.
NEC has prepared a Comprehensive Tourism Master Plan for the entire region identifying several tourist circuits, which was discussed in this meeting.
For the financial year 2011-12, NEC had released Rs 693 crore out of the total budget allocation of Rs 700 crore. NEC had convened a number of working groups for the 12th Five Year Plan under Transport and Communication Sector, Power, Health, Agriculture, Science and Technology, Human Resource Development and Employment sectors.
The Deputy Chief Minister supported the NEC demand of Rs 13027.38 crore for the 12th Plan and Rs 1840.40 crore for the year 2012-13. He also dubbed the 2011-12 plan allocation for the Council at Rs 787 crore as meager.
Lyngdoh also demanded that the non-lapsable pool should be kept in a revolving fund to be operated by the DoNER ministry and a portion of this fund should also be placed at the disposal of the NEC for funding their activities.
Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary who participated in the session said that considering the Look East policy the NE region should open up to the neighbouring countries. He said that the recent opening of the border haats in Meghalaya with Bangladesh has got wide response.
The Governor wanted a changing role for the NEC as a catalyst for development of the region. The NEC must play a constructive and coordinated role in balanced development of the region, he said.
Placing his report at the plenary meeting, NEC Secretary BK Sangma, too, expressed unhappiness over the reduced amount of allocation to the Council over the years. “It is disheartening to note that in the successive five year plans, the ratio of actual allocation and respective plan outlays is coming down,” he said.
But despite the fund constraints in the 12th Plan with about 72 per cent allocation the focus would be on transport, communication, health, and power sectors, the Secretary said.
But at the same time, Sangma lamented that there is huge unspent balances and under utilization by the Northeastern states. In total there about Rs 440.38 crore unspent balance topped by Manipur, he said.
In the Tourism sector, the NEC is planning to open as many as eight tourist circuits in each state. In case of Meghalaya there will be a Guwahati-Tura-Balpakram-Tura-Manas-Guwahati tourist circuit, he informed.
