FOLLOWING mounting pressure from the eight North-East chief ministers, the Union Finance Ministry has restored the annual budget of the North Eastern Council (NEC) to the original outlay of Rs 500 crores. The proposed budget cut, would have affected several ongoing developmental projects, including one under the commissioned power project. Official sources said that the 49th council meeting of the NEC, held at Shillong on February 20, and the seven North-Eastern chief ministers earlier urged the Union Government to restore the NEC budget to its original outlay. The Tripura Assembly also in a resolution on March 4 requested the Centre not to cut the NEC budget for the all-round development of the backward region. The sources said for the current fiscal planning commission had fixed the annual budget of the NEC at Rs 750 crore and subsequently the Union Finance Ministry had cut down the budget to Rs 500 crore and very recently it was further reduced to Rs 395.29 crore. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, in a letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayeee, urged to restore the NEC’s annual budget to its original allocation. “You would appreciate that such pruning would have an adverse impact on the development process in the NE region and it goes against the very spirit of the package for the region announced by you,’’ Mr Sarkar had told Mr Vajpayee. NEC is also considering the proposal to declare the next year as the Special Employment Drive Year to link various schemes and programmes with employment. In a phased manner 5,000 unemployed youths would be trained up  in various fields in the eight NE states. ‘’The process for approval of various projects and schemes for the different member states is now very complicated. It should be much easier.’’ The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi), the development catalyst for the region, is organising a tourism conclave in May to facilitate private public Partnership (PPP) in tourism.

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