New Delhi: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s interim, also the UPA-II government’s last budget, has nothing much for the Northeastern region barring 1200 crore rupees as Additional Central Assistance.
However, this again will be shared with two big states – Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
While delivering his interim budget speech, Chidambaram informed the House that the Northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand deserve special attention.
“In addition to funds allocated in the current year, a sum of Rs.1,200 crore is released as Additional Central Assistance to these States before the end of the year,” the Finance Minister said. These states routinely need ACA hence the Government has decided to allocate funds for their use, he said.
The region will also get a fair share from over Rs.30,000 crore tribal sub-plan. Besides the monetary gains the budget declared that 128 lakh land titles covering 18.80 lakh hectares were distributed under the The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
The DoNER Ministry was allocated Rs.2032.78 crore for 2014-15 both in plan and non-plan sectors. A major chunk of Rs.725 crore of this allocation will go to the North Eastern Council.
Most MPs from the region expressed their unhappiness over the absence of any major sop for the remote and backward North East region.
