The North Eastern Council which was created to complement and supplement the developmental efforts of the States has already contributed immensely in terms of institution building, transport and communication, power generation and transmission and creation of different kinds of infrastructural facilities with a view to positioning the States to launch themselves into a self-sustaining growth trajectory. However, a lot remains to be done since the gap between the NE States and other States of the country keeps on getting widened. Through its Regional Plan, NEC has attempted to identify thrust areas as well as critical gaps for taking up as many development initiatives as possible within its given annual budgetary allocation. In the Regional Plan, a Sector-wise outline of development plans and projects along with requirement of resources has been made for the coming three years with a view to accelerating the pace of development in the Region.
Historically, the states of North East India had been organized mainly on linguistic basis and political exigency emanating from much diversity in ethnicity, culture and levels of development. Hence, they were not economically viable and had to depend heavily on the Central Government for financial assistance, especially Plan assistance, which continued to be given on a 90:10 basis, i.e. 90% central assistance while the States themselves raise only 10% of the budget. The States are thus known as Special Category States. Even after more than four decades of their existence, these States continue to be in the backwaters of economic development and still need a great deal of concerted effort to bring them at par with the more developed States of the country. The North Eastern Council which was created to complement and supplement the developmental efforts of the States has already contributed immensely in terms of institution building, transport and communication, power generation and transmission and creation of different kinds of infrastructural facilities with a view to positioning the States to launch themselves into a self-sustaining growth trajectory. However, a lot remains to be done since the gap between the NE States and other States of the country keeps on getting widened. Hence, the NEC Secretariat has been trying to identify thrust areas as well as critical gaps for taking up as many development initiatives as possible within its given annual budgetary allocation.
Given its mandate of a Regional Planning body, the NEC has set out to formulate a Sector-wise outline of development plans and projects for the three years beginning April 2017 with a view to accelerating the pace of development which had slowed down during the past five to ten years due to highly inadequate budgetary provision in the Five Year Plans and Annual Plans of the North Eastern Council which resulted in its inability to fully meet the expectations of its constituent States. It is hoped that the Government of India will adequately and proactively redress the long pending grievances of the people of this region by ensuring that what has been proposed in the Regional Plan do not meet a familiar obstacle, namely fund crunch. At the same time, it is hoped that all the States of the region would also vastly improve their implementation machinery so as to dispel the impression that they do not actually have the capacity to absorb and effectively utilise funds within given timeframes.
