New Delhi (NVI): The Budget for North East Council (NEC) has doubled from Rs 700 crore to Rs 1,474 crore in the last five years, Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region, Jitendra Singh said today.
The Union Minister 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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.
“There is a constant and progressive rise in funds for the development of the North-Eastern Region since 2014,” he said while speaking in the Parliament today.
Singh also informed the House that on January 28 Union Cabinet accorded its approval for allocating 30 per cent of NEC’s funding for new projects under the existing “Schemes of North Eastern Council” for focused development of deprived areas, deprived and neglected sections of society and emerging priority sectors in the North-Eastern states.
“The balance allocation shall be bifurcated in the existing two components, state component-60 per cent and central component-40 per cent,” he said.
“It would not only lead to balanced socio-economic development of North East and reduce inter-region and inter-tribes and community disparities but would also lead to preservation of cultural diversity of North East and save the scripts and languages which are gradually becoming extinct,” he said.
“In case of schemes being implemented by North Eastern Council (NEC), the current year’s budgetary allocation is Rs 1,474 cr, an increase of 19.23 per cent over RE 2019-20 allocation of Rs.1237 cr,” he added.
