SHILLONG, Jul 9:Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the North Eastern states to expedite work on long pending projects of the North Eastern Council (NEC) and ensure maximum utilisation of funds. Addressing the 67th Plenary Session of the NEC in Shillong today, he said NEC and the eight North-Eastern States would have to ensure that all the ongoing projects were completed in a time bound manner. 

 Underlining the importance of civil society participation in developmental process, the Home Minister advocated social audit of the projects and use of modern technology to effectively monitor project implementation.

 “In the North Eastern Region, civil society is a very powerful medium to be engaged in all our development efforts. The participation of the civil society is crucial. They should be the partners in socio-economic change. One such partnership can be through social audit”, said Singh, in his first address to NEC after the Union Cabinet’s recent approval of a proposal making the Union Home Minister the Chairman of NEC.

  “Social audit not only provides information on how funds are spent but most crucially it enables people’s participation in the planning of developmental activities and also enables mid-course correction as projects and schemes roll on,” he added.

 He expressed happiness that through the use of remote sensing and satellite imagery, NEC had partnered with the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) and developed a ‘Projects Monitoring’ portal and a mobile application where stakeholders can monitor progress of capital works funded by the NEC.

Underlining the need for a critical analysis and revision of strategy for development in the North-Eastern Region (NER), HM called for drawing a short-term, medium-term and long-term roadmap.

 Singh said there have been a number of reports and vision documents on how to develop North-Eastern Region. He emphasized on the need of taking stock of progress made in implementing recommendations contained in them and taking expeditious steps further.

 The Union Home Minister also urged the State governments to create conducive environments for investment so that entrepreneurs take this opportunity to set up industrial units and generate the much needed employment in the region.

Stating that the Ministry of DoNER had recently launched the North East Venture Capital Fund through the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) with a corpus of Rs.100 Cr, he exhorted the entrepreneurs of the region to access funds to take up economic activities in the field of tourism, waste management, medical healthcare, handloom and handicrafts and agro products etc.

The Union Home Minister lauded the NEC for leveraging its community-based project, North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP), to design sustainable livelihoods interventions and for improving the life of a lot of rural households in the NER.

 “After creation of North Eastern Council under NEC Act, 1971, the states of NER were deleted from the purview of Eastern Zonal Council. I suggest that NEC may be used as a forum to discuss and resolve Inter-State and Centre-State issues effectively as the other Zonal Councils are doing,” said Singh.

 In view of the peculiar geographical terrain of the NER and fragmented farmland holdings, the Union Home Minister called for “high-value low-volume” produce for export and “out-of-the-box” solutions to doubling farmers’ income by 2022. He also said that the NEC could become a spring board for regional integration and prosperity with South East Asia towards realizing the objectives of the Government’s Act East Policy.

 The two-day 67th Plenary of the NEC is being attended by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) etc, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the NEC, besides Governors and Chief Ministers and senior officers of the eight North-Eastern states and Union Ministry of DoNER.

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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