As the Centre is passing through a financial crisis, the North-Eastern states should not expect a sudden windfall gain from the Centre for development, This was stated by Union Minister of State for Planning and Programme Implementation Arun Shourie during his recent visit to Assam. Describing the gravity of the financial crisis the Centre is facing, he informed that this year the Central Government was due to pay Rs 1,20,000 crore as interest on the loan it had received from international funding agencies.

The Union Minister further revealed that at this moment all Plan funds in the country were borrowed funds and stressed the need for rethinking on India’s strategy on national economic development. He called for judicious utilisation of available resources for implementation of development projects in time.

However, Mr. Shourie claimed that per capita Central assistance to most of the North-Eastern states was more than the national average. He said there was much scope for improvement in NE State Governments’ effort for efficient utilisation of Central assistance.

Mr. Shourie informed that total eleven Central Ministries had been directed to set aside 10 per cent of their respective budget allocation for the North-East States. This year the Central Government has earmarked Rs. 700 crore from the Non-lapsable pool of Central Resources for implementation of various projects in North-Eastern states.

Mr. Shourie further said, "In today’s global economic scenario where capital and human resource are highly mobile, nobody will prefer to invest in a place dogged by certain localised problems. Obviously, "insurgency in the North-East had been a major deterrent for investment," he said adding it must be propagated that those who have taken up arms are only depriving their own people of progress. The Union Minister said killings, kidnappings which are taking place in the NE region cannot be termed as insurgency any longer. "Insurgency in the North-East now-a-days is nothing but armed dacoity by gang of some misguided youths bereft of any ideology who have become instruments at the hands of Pakistani ISI," Mr. Shourie added.