Dimapur, March 3 (MExN): The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) today termed the increase in the budget allocation for the North East by the Center as a hoax to draw monetary optimism from the people of the region without having any real concern for the people of the region.
A press statement received here from the NESO Chairman, Dr Samujjal Bhattacharjya and Secretary General, NSN Lotha, while stating that the increase in the budget allocation from Rs 12, 0412 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 14,365 crore in 2007-08 is absolutely ‘a hoax’ to draw momentary optimism from the people of NE, the NESO pointed out that the increase in the budget has nothing as it includes Rs 1,380 crore for the DONER and the remaining has got to do more with the increase in the budget allocation of different ministries at the rate of ten percent cuts.
The NESO stated that the Union Budget does not specifically focus on the NE region. It stated that the much awaited relief in the matching-grants of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) between the centre and the NE states find no mention in the budget. Moreover, in the Tax exemptions section, the much suggested and expectation in the tax reforms exclusively for the NE was totally out of the Budget perimeter, the NESO stated.
The NESO alleged that the developmental promises made by various UPA leaders is just nothing but just a means to temporarily win over the minds of the NE people for their political whimsies and charged that the centre has no real concern for the development of the NE region.
“Indeed, the present Union budget clearly depicts that Delhi does not have a real concern for the over-all growth of the NE region” the NESO stated.
Nevertheless, the NESO appreciated the 34.2 percent increase in the budget allocation in the field of education. It also regarded the announcement of 100% subsidy to small farmers as pro-poor supplemented by the increase in the allocation of fund for the ST/SC schemes. In the same manner, the NESO also welcomed the guarantee to include all the districts of the NE under the NREGA, and regarded it as the most welcoming paraphernalia of the Union Budget.
