New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) The allocation for the development of the northeast region has been doubled to Rs.8,000 crore (Rs.80 billion/$1.7 billion), Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced Monday while presenting the budget for fiscal for 2011-12.
‘In order to boost development in the northeastern region and special category states, the allocation for special assistance has been almost doubled to Rs.8,000 crore for 2011-12. Out of this, Rs.5,400 crore has been allocated as untied Special Central Assistance,’ Mukherjee said while delivering his budget speech in the Lok Sabha.
In addition, the ministry for development of north eastern region (DoNER)has been allocated Rs.1,550 crore for infrastructure development. This is, however, almost 12 percent lower than the Rs.1,760 allocated for 2010-11.
Of the Rs.1,550 crore, Rs.700 crore will be for schemes of the North Eastern Council (NEC), Rs 800 crore as grant from the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) and Rs.50 crore for the schemes of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
DoNER, through its schemes of NEC and NLCPR, takes up projects in the northeast for infrastructure development in the sectors like roads, bridges, power, irrigation, health, education, sports and drinking water supply.
Another Rs.170 crore has been earmarked under the Social and Infrastructure Development Fund for creating and upgrading infrastructure facilities, specially in Arunachal Pradesh and other border areas in the northeast.
The region will also get Rs.191 crore for central plan schemes. This includes Rs.60 crore as loans to the North East Development Finance Corporation (NEDFC), Rs.68 crore for the North East States Road Project (NESRP) and Rs.35 crore for the North Eastern Region Livelihood Project (NERLP).
The central government has a separate ministry for the development of northeast region comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
Sharing over 2,000 km of boundary with Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, many states in the region have been battling insurgents for decades.
More than 30 rebel groups operate in the region with their demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy and the right to self-determination.
