Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 4: North Eastern Council annual budget allocation has doubled in five years, from approximately Rs 700 crore in 2014 to Rs 1,474 crore in the current financial year. Similarly, the budgetary allocation for Ministry of DoNER saw a hike of over 14.2% in one year, from Rs. 2,670 crore in 2019-20 to Rs. 3,049 crore in 2020-21.
Disclosing this at a media briefing here, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the hallmark of Union Budget 2020-21 is the highest priority it accorded to the overall development of North Eastern Region keeping in tune with the vision and declaration of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. He said that there is a constant and progressive rise in funds for the development of the North-Eastern Region since 2014.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in case of Ministry of DoNER, the budgetary allocation for 2020-21 is Rs. 3049 cr as against Rs. 2670 cr in the RE 2019-20 (increase of 14.2%). Out of this, the provision for development of infrastructure is around Rs.2900 cr. Compared to AE 2014-15 of Rs. 1719 Cr, the budget allocation of Ministry of DoNER in 2020-21 is higher by 77.26%. In case of schemes being implemented by North Eastern Council (NEC), the current year’s budgetary allocation is Rs.1474 Cr, an increase of 19.23 % over RE 2019-20 allocation of Rs.1237 Cr.
Dr Singh said that the archaeological site at Shivsagar (Assam) to be developed as an iconic heritage site with on-site Museums in addition to four other sites in the country. Inland Waterways received a boost in the last five years. The 890 Km NW-2 on Brahmaputra between Dhubri-Sadiya would be completed in all respects by 2022. Air traffic has been growing rapidly in the country as compared to global average. One hundred more airports would be developed by 2024 to support Udaan scheme. In NER, one new and 10 non-operational airports are likely to be operationalized in this period. Krishi Udaan will be launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on international and national routes. This will immensely help improve value realisation especially in North-East and tribal districts.
The Minister said that to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of milk, meat and fish, the Indian Railways will set up a “Kisan Rail” – through PPP arrangements. There shall be refrigerated coaches in Express and Freight trains as well. This would enable perishable agri-horticultural produce of the North East to be transported to the rest of the country, thus contributing to the Government’s target for increase in farmer income.
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