Several ministers from North Eastern States have demanded that their states be given10 per cent of the diesel cess for road projects, rather than on the basis of the region’s consumption of petrol and diesel.

The ministers, who were in Delhi to attend the State PWD Ministers conference earlier this week, called on Surface Transport Minister Rajnath Singh recently and also urged him to entrust rural road projects in the region with the PWDs, instead of the Rural Development Department (RDD) as RDDs in the North-East had no infrastructure.

The ministers further sought Central funds for maintenance roads constructed by the Border Roads Organisation with funds from the Defence Ministry but later abandoned, an official release said.

The delegation which called on Rajnath Singh comprised of Manipur Deputy Chief Minister L. Chandramani Singh, Assam Revenue Minister Zoii Nath Sarmah, PWD Ministers K. V. Pusa of Nagaland, Badal Choudhary of Tripura, Kynmen Susngi of Meghalaya, R. Tlanghingthanga of Mizoram, and Thupten Tempa of Arunachal Pradesh and Dr Arun Kumar Sharma, MP.

Mr. Singh assured them that the North East would continue to receive special attention from his ministry which was allocating 10 per cent of the funds for the region.

On a request for upgrading the Surface Transport Ministry’s regional office at Guwahati, he said it had already been decided in principle to post a Chief Engineer at Assam capital.

Mr. Singh also assured the delegation that he would take up the issue of bitumen shortage in the North-East with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry.