Exclusive ‘NITI Aayog Forum’ for Northeast from tomorrow: Dr Jitendra

Excelsior Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Apr 9: The first-of-its-kind, exclusive ‘NITI Aayog Forum’ for Northeast will start functioning from tomorrow. This is first time in the 70 years history of independent India that NITI Aayog or the erstwhile Planning Commission of India is going to have a separate forum devoted specifically to planning and execution of projects in any particular region of the country.
Disclosing this here today at a media briefing, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy & Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the setting up of an exclusive “NITI Aayog Forum” for Northeast is a vindication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to Northeast, which is unparalleled by any government or Prime Minister in the past. He said, it has been possible primarily because of Prime Minister Modi’s personal intervention that an exclusive “NITI Aayog” Forum for this region could materialize. He also recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made as many as 25 to 30 visits to Northeast in less than four years, which is unparalleled and was unimaginable till a few years ago when even a visit by a Union Minister to Northeast was seen as a rare event.
The NITI Aayog Forum for Northeast will be formally launched tomorrow from the Tripura capital of Agartala. The official launching will be performed jointly by the Minister for DoNER Dr Jitendra Singh and Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar. The first meeting scheduled tomorrow is expected to be attended by  Chief Ministers and Ministers from all the eight States of North Eastern region, besides senior officers of NITI Aayog and Ministry of DoNER.
The exclusive NITI Aayog Forum, according to Dr Jitendra Singh, will work with the objective of identifying various constraints in the way of accelerated, inclusive and sustainable economic growth of the eight States of the North Eastern region of India. It will also recommend suitable interventions for addressing the identified constraints, he said. In addition, the forum will also be tasked to review the overall development status in the Northeast, he added.
Besides Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog, DoNER Minister, CEO NITI Aayog,Secretary DoNER and Secretary North-Eastern Council, the members of the Forum will also include Union Secretaries of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Railways, Power, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, New & Renewable Energy, Health & Family Welfare, Human Resource Development, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, etc. The Chief Secretaries of all the eight States of the North Eastern region will also be members of the Forum. Joint Secretary (NE) in Union Ministry of Home Affairs and several other experts from different fields have also been co-opted as members.
At the formal launch event scheduled for tomorrow at Agartala, the DoNER Minister and Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog will layout the road-map for the future working of the Forum and the mechanism of its close coordination with the eight State Governments in NE region.

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