Cutting across party lines, all major political parties and leaders in the North-East are opposing the move to abolish DoNER.

Protests against the move to abolish DoNER ministry is getting louder. Cutting across party lines, all major political parties and leaders have opposed the move. Unexpected support has come from DoNER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer. Mr. Aiyer has informed that his ministry will oppose the move vehemently. The North-Eastern Chief Ministers are also planning to pass a resolution at the forthcoming NEC meeting against the move. NE MPs have already submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister opposing the move.

It may be mentioned here that the second Administrative Reforms Commission in its report to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommended the closing down of the ministry and responsibility restored to the Home Ministry. The report also recommended that all funds from the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) be routed through the NEC from henceforth and not DoNER.

Among the Chief Ministers of the region, Meghalaya Chief Minister Donkupar Roy is the bitterest critic of this move. Donkupar Roy recently informed the State Assembly that the State government would oppose the move to abolish the ministry and would in fact urge the Centre to strengthen it.

According to Mr. Roy that the ministry is of immense help towards development of the region and its closing down will adversely affect the economy of North-East. “The Centre should think in terms of strengthening the ministry instead of closing it down,” the Chief Minister argued.

“We are certainly not going to accept the recommendation,” stressed Union Minister in-charge of DoNER Mani Shankar Aiyer. Mr. Aiyer feels that the move will reverse the development process in North-East.

DoNER ministry was created by the erstwhile NDA Government at the Centre with an objective to inject more money and put more stress on development in the region. For long, it was the demand of the people of North-East. The people of the region urged for a separate ministry for ensuring speedy economic development. The populace felt that the North Eastern Council, created for the same purpose had failed to deliver the goods because of some inherent problems in its act. For example, NEC cannot take up any state-specific project. A project undertaken by NEC should at least benefit two or more states. As a result, while NEC can sanction funds for National Highways, it can’t provide money for any other road. DoNER was created so that such issues could be addressed. To ensure that state-specific projects do not suffer for want of funds.   

DoNER Minister feels that it is high time that the governments of the North-Eastern states worked together to strengthen the functioning of DoNER.

The recommendation of ARC will be discussed at length at the forthcoming NEC meeting in Agartala and as per the indication availableeveryone present in the meeting will oppose the move.

On the other hand,  North East MPs forum has urged the Prime Minister to make the DoNER Ministry a full fledged one and requested him to give more powers and budget instead of abolishing it altogether as suggested by the ARC.

“While opposing the recommendations of the Commission, we also strongly urge upon your good office to upgrade the Ministry of DoNER to a full fledged Ministry with all powers vested in it and with adequate financial and coordinating powers for the development of the North Eastern Region”, the MPs who met Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday night said, adding that the entire fund accumulated in the consolidated fund of India, as accruals in the NLCPR should be kept at the disposal of the Ministry of DONER so that it could exclusively play the role of a nodal Ministry for planning and all round development of the Region.

“The Ministry of DoNER has so far only been distributing the Non-lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) funds placed with them by the Finance Ministry every year. This was not the vision of the Central Government when the Ministry was formed,” the Forum said in a memorandum to the Prime Minister.

Such a recommendation without going into the ground realities obtaining in the region and the true spirit behind the creation of a separate Ministry for it has created serious misgivings and grave doubts about the sincerity of the present Government towards the North Eastern region, they said.

The Forum also said that the implementation of NEC projects in the 11th Plan has suffered greatly due to its inability to clear past liabilities amounting to Rs. 2203 crore and because of which the NEC has been asked to stop taking up new projects. This will not only limit the role of NEC as a regional planning body but would make the vision document 2020 a meaningless exercise.

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | Cover story  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |