New Delhi: A day after the newly appointed Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy asked his officials to concentrate on implementing the pending projects in the Northeast, the ministry on Monday asked all the Northeastern states for a detailed report on the status of such projects of high importance.
A senior official in the DoNER ministry told ETV Bharat that Reddy has asked the officials to complete all projects in the region within the stipulated time. In the recent reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, Reddy who was earlier Minister of State for Home has been given the responsibility of DoNER replacing Dr Jitendra Singh. To give focussed attention to address the special needs of the region, the department of DoNER was set up in 2001 and converted into a full-fledged ministry in 2004. Its vision is to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development of the Northeast.
Accordingly, all the central ministries and departments are required to spend 10 per cent of gross budgetary support from their allocation under central sector schemes and under centrally sponsored schemes for the benefit of the region. The ministry, however, faced a huge cut in its proposed budget of Rs 4859.28 crore for the year 2021-22. The finance ministry has allocated a total net budget of Rs 2658.00 crore for the financial year 2021-22.
"We hope under the leadership of G Kishan Reddy, Northeast will definitely see an era of development and prosperity. In fact, ever since Narendra Modi took charge as the Prime Minister, the overall look towards Northeast has been changed," said Queen Oja, BJP MP from Guwahati.
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It may be mentioned here that on the concluding day of the two-day-long comprehensive ministerial review meeting of the DoNER ministry, Reddy emphasised that the socio-economic development of the Northeast will be his key focus area. The landlocked region, however, is lacking behind proper connectivity, health infrastructure among other special components. A Parliamentary panel in a recent report has also said that the region needs an overall haul.
The Parliamentary committee in its reports on demands for grants (2021-22) for the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region has pointed out that financial shortfall may adversely affect the implementation of several projects and institutions. Statistics in possession of ETV Bharat said that out of 36 proposed projects under the North East Road Sector Development Scheme, only 8 have been sanctioned. Moreover, vital and important infrastructure projects like hospitals to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, schools are still in the process of being sanctioned.
"The progress of road construction projects have been affected by serious adversaries like hilly terrain, inclement weather conditions and medical emergencies like the Covid19 pandemic," the parliamentary committee said in its report. The committee recommends that the ministry must conduct special drives for the completion of these projects as they have been initiated way back in 2013. Air connectivity, flood control projects, Kaladan multimodal transit transport (KMTT) project, tourism are some of the other sectors that DoNER minister Reddy really need to give special attention to.
"The newly inducted Cabinet minister for DoNER has a vast responsibility to perform. The ministry which was set up two decades ago has not yet been able to bring an inclusive development of all the States in Northeast till date," said CK Nayak, a Delhi based independent journalist. Nayak who is well aware of the issues of the Northeast believes that an overall development in the Northeast could be a game-changer for India's Act East policy.
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