With an aim to restore the lost glory, North Eastern Council (NEC) approves the Vision-2020 document at its plenary.

Backwardness in the North-Eastern region may be a thing of past soon. The Vision-2020 document approved by the North Eastern Council (NEC) at its plenary aimed to restore the past glory of the region. DoNER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer, all Governors and Chief Ministers of the states signed the Vision-2020 document after a two-day hectic discussion in Agartala recently.  

According to DoNER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer the purpose of the Vision Document is to return the North-East region to the position of national economic eminence that it held a few decades ago. After the signing ceremony the Minister further said that after the partition of India in the year 1947 the transit facilities to physically link all but 29 km of North-East to the rest of the country has severely limited the economic prospects of the region.

Keeping in mind all such facts, the Vision-2020 document puts priority on agriculture sector. It may be noted here that the region is largely dependent on other states on the agro and allied fields. Besides, the document stresses on reviving traditional ties with neighbouring countries.

Diplomatic initiatives of the kind envisaged by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) based on new inputs and seamlessly blending foreign policy with national development requirements are urgently required for resolving outstanding issues with countries neighbouring the North-East, the document stated. It further advocated for opening up a branch secretariat of MEA in the region as early as possible.

“Relation with Bangladeshis is important to ensure overall development of the North Eastern region and I hope the neighbouring country will opt for maintaining better relation”, Mr. Aiyer said.

“There is an urgent need of redefining of the Look East Policy to resolve outstanding issues of trade, transit and investment with the countries neighbouring the region. It also involves promoting Indian investment in infrastructure in partner countries, especially Myanmar, particularly in respect of ports such as Sittwe and international highways to connect the NE region to ASEAN”, the Minister added.

Besides signing the vision document, a high-level Task Force has been constituted to prepare a comprehensive report for ensuing smooth and rapid development of the North-Eastern region. The Task Force will have to submit the report by July 1, informed Mani Shankar Aiyer.

Secretary of NEC will be the convener of the proposed Task Force while Chief Secretaries of all the North-Eastern states and Secretary of DoNER Ministry will be the members.

Mr. Aiyer said that there should be a 10 per cent increase in the allocation from the Non-Lapsable Central Pool Resource (NLCPR), in addition to the 10 per cent budgetary support to the NEC.

“The Task Force will also take a note on whether funds made available to the Ministry of DoNER and NLCPR should be made available to the DoNER in entirety as an entitlement of NE States or should it continue as grant from consolidated funds from the Centre,” Mr. Aiyer informed.

The Task Force will also have a fresh look at the recently notified North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy. According to Aiyer, the NEC members were of the view that this should be revoked immediately.

 DoNER Minister said that State Governments of the region have started sending utilization certificates of various NEC sponsored schemes following requests from the Ministry. It may be noted here that the Centre has recently asked the NE states to submit the utilization certificates amidst reports of irregularities about the use of funds.

The Union Minister is hopeful that dedicated airline for the region is expected to kick off by January 2009. He, however, has admitted that the first bid to launch a dedicated airline did not succeed. 

Mr. Aiyer further informed that after second Administrative Reform Commission had recommended abolishing the DoNER Ministry, the Centre has formed a high-level committee headed by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee to examine the proposal.

Meanwhile amidst severe competition posed by globalization, it is being largely felt that developing clusters of firms engaged in similar activities would be the most viable approach to uplift the small and traditional industrial sector in the North East, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship Director K Ahmed said. Addressing the inaugural function of the State Regional Resource Centre here, Ahmed said the need for clusters (concentration of firms in particular sectors and localities) lie in the fact that small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) can play a key role in economic growth and equitable development in the region.

“Clustering not only offers the route to industrialisation by offering the SMEs the answer to unattained problems like access to market, achieving homogenous standards and innovating products as well as improving their competitive position,” he said.

Ahmed said in the North-East, the approach has not been clear till date. Underlining the need for appropriate policy from State Governments of the region and coordinated efforts of all stakeholders/agencies, Ahmed said the SME sector in the region can best develop by focusing on efforts in geographically concentrated clusters.

The IIE director said the flagship programmes of the Centre aimed at cluster development have not been picked up by the region. He said the IIE has identified 10 viable clusters in the North East of late and 20 more would be identified in the current financial year. The institute would provide training, research and consultancy to develop these clusters. A Shillong office of the Guwahati-based Regional Resource Centre on cluster development was also inaugurated.

The Government of India had set up the RRC in IIE, Guwahati to propagate cluster development approach in NE. The RRC would have its nodal office in Guwahati and State centres in rest of the seven NE States with a holistic approach towards capacity building, providing handholding support and devising policy interventions in sustainable cluster development.

Among the ten clusters identified by the IIE for development in NE included a jewellery cluster in Manipur.

national economic eminence by 2020 and resolve outstanding issues related to trade, transit and investment with the neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Talking to UNI here today, NEC Secretary Falguni Rajkumar said that the council had held at least eight sectorial summits, besides regular meetings in 2007, to understand the issues and compile the resource strength, financial assessment as well as review the development activities in the North-east.

“The Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance Policy (NIPFP) has prepared the document Vision 2020 following sample survey on the core issues of the NE States, and the views of several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and intellectuals were also incorporated in the Vision document, which will be the next investment footprint for NE States,” Rajkumar said. He stated that the Vision 2020 document had highlighted promoting Indian investment infrastructure in neighbouring countries, especially Myanmar, particularly in respect of ports such as Sittwe and international highways to connect the North-east to ASEAN countries.

However, the immediate priority is to build required infrastructure right up to the border areas, establishing connectivity and communication links to the cross-border points through which trade and economic exchanges with the neighbouring countries were proposed to be promoted under the Look East Policy. It also emphasized the need for foreign investment and NRI initiatives in the region in infrastructure, education, healthcare and even agriculture and its allied activities as a priority sector, he said.

“It is only through Green Revolution that the problem of the region’s poverty can be addressed and the region can be catapulted to the path of rapid progress,” he said.

The initial investment to implement the Vision would be from outside the region but at later phases, the North-east would be capable enough to invest and surge ahead on its own, as an estimated Rs 13 lakh crore is required to balance the infrastructure gap between the North-east and the rest of the country, he added.

Meanwhile, North East Council (NEC) has sought to redefine the Centre’s Look East Policy to bring the region to national economic eminence by 2020 and resolve outstanding issues related to trade, transit and investment with the neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.

According to NEC Secretary Falguni Rajkumar said that the council had held at least eight sectorial summits, besides regular meetings in 2007, to understand the issues and compile the resource strength, financial assessment as well as review the development activities in the North-East.

“The Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance Policy (NIPFP) has prepared the document Vision 2020 following sample survey on the core issues of the NE States, and the views of several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and intellectuals were also incorporated in the Vision document, which will be the next investment footprint for NE States,” Rajkumar said. He stated that the Vision 2020 document had highlighted promoting Indian investment infrastructure in neighbouring countries, especially Myanmar, particularly in respect of ports such as Sittwe and international highways to connect the North-East to ASEAN countries.

However, the immediate priority is to build required infrastructure right up to the border areas, establishing connectivity and communication links to the cross-border points through which trade and economic exchanges with the neighbouring countries were proposed to be promoted under the Look East Policy. It also emphasized the need for foreign investment and NRI initiatives in the region in infrastructure, education, healthcare and even agriculture and its allied activities as a priority sector, he said.

“It is only through Green Revolution that the problem of the region’s poverty can be addressed and the region can be catapulted to the path of rapid progress,” he said.

The initial investment to implement the Vision would be from outside the region but at later phases, the North-east would be capable enough to invest and surge ahead on its own, as an estimated Rs 13 lakh crore is required to balance the infrastructure gap between the North-East and the rest of the country, he added.

On the other hand, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has urged his counterparts of the other Northeastern states as well as the Centre to initiate target-oriented projects to bring the North-East’s development at par with other States of the country.

Terming the 56th plenary session of the North East Council (NEC), which concluded here yesterday, a “historical event”, Sarkar said the people of the region had waited for long for a comprehensive and pragmatic document Vision 2020 for development in all fronts.

He, however, lashed out at the Centre for downplaying the aspirations of the people of the North-east and called upon the Centre to resolve the contentious issues related to development to ensure the growth at par with other parts of the country.

“The North-East has not been suffering from lack of natural resources, but the attitude of the Centre has virtually undermined the sentiments of the people,” Sarkar said, adding that owing to the absence of proper infrastructure, the full potential of the North-East region could not be tapped. He asserted that if the development took place at par across the country, the North-East would be able to contribute to the nation-building initiatives. He also pointed out that lack of development was the root cause of the secessionist movements in the north-eastern States, which could only be addressed through massive development programmes.

Sarkar, like his other counterparts of the region, also took strong exception to the way the NEC budget allocation was being decreased and accused the Ministry of Development of Northeast Region (DoNER) of delay in implementing the projects. He pointed out that the NEC budget for the fiscal 2008-09 was pegged at Rs 624 crore which was actually less than the budget allocations of Rs 40 or Rs 50 crore during the formative periods of the NEC and demanded to increase it to at least Rs 1,000 crore while asking to hand over the funds from Non Lapsable Central Pool directly to the NEC instead of DoNER.

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