Dimapur, September 16 (DIPR): The first meeting of the North East Council (NEC) Committee on Connectivity, including Road and Highways, Airports and Air Connectivity, Railways and Inland waterways, was held today at the Rhododendron Hall, Chumukedima, Dimapur. Nagaland Chief Minister, TR Zeliang, also the chairman of the committee, in his opening remark observed that the NEC needs to promote research and innovation and provide strategic policy vision for the region in order to help the member states in the planning and execution of projects.
Towards this end, Zeliang felt that the mandate of NEC needs to be expanded from being a regional planning body to that of a regional planning and development body. "To ensure success of Prime Minister's vision to transform the NEC, there is an urgent need to augment its budgetary outlay and provide the required manpower with specialised knowledge and skills so as to enable it to make meaningful contributions to the development of North East Region,” he stated.
Zeliang said that the Act East Policy of the Government of India has placed the North East region in the development map of the country. Further, he added that flagship schemes of the Central Government like the National Road Development Programme, SARDP-NE, PMGSY, national programme for railways and air connectivity has provided new hope to the people of the region to develop and grow with the rest of the country. Zeliang highlighted on roads, railways, airports and Inland waterways development in the North East region.
Nagaland MP to the Rajya Sabha, KG Kenye expressed his appreciation on the seriousness of the Centre and the institution of NEC along with its subsidiary DoNER for trying to implement the required development for the region. He was of the view that North East needs special attention because of the area being land locked. He further felt that proper inputs and feedbacks from the states are required for identifying the genuine areas that need to be addressed. Remarking that a good beginning has been made, Kenye was optimistic that NEC and DoNER would start implementing the required projects.
Several committee members aired their viewpoints and contributed their ideas and suggestions during the meeting.
