The Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (I/C), PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Dr Jitendra Singh released the calendar of North East Council (NEC),Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), here today. The wall calendar has been prepared on theme of indigenous arts of North east and table calendar on the theme of ornaments of north east region. The Secretary (DoNER) Shri Naveen Verma, OSD (DoNER), Shri Inderjit Singh and Secretary, NEC, Shri Ram Muivah were also present on the occasion.Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that in the last four and half years, north east has undergone a revolutionary transformation under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He added that Prime Minister has himself paid several visits to the north eastern region. He added that now the North East region has become a role model for the other states. The Minister said that recently Government has approved the extension of benefits to Jammu & Kashmir on the line of North Eastern states for industrial promotion, which is a matter of pride.
The Minister also spoke about other initiatives for north east region e.g. first region based NITI forum for north east, North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme, region based North Eastern Road Sector Development Scheme, first ever airport in Sikkim (Pakyong), North East Venture Fund, amendment in Indian Forest Act where bamboo is no longer a tree, enabling the livelihoods of forest communities, among others. He said that DoNER Ministry has organised various events to promote culture and tourism of north east such as Destination North East series, North East calling etc. Speaking about the infrastructure development, the Minister mentioned about the Bogibeel bridge is a road and rail bridge over the Brahmaputra river in the north eastern Indian state of Assam. He also said that north east is now better connected with the other parts of country.The Ministry of DoNER has taken various initiatives for the development of North Eastern region. The trend of budgetary allocation to MDoNER in the last few years reflects an increase of 51% allocation in BE 2018-19 compared against actual of 2015-16. M/DoNER was allocated Rs. 1986.80 crore (Actual), Rs. 2495.84 crore (Actual), Rs.2682.45 crore (RE) and Rs. 3000.00 crore (BE) for the years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.
M/DoNER, being the nodal Ministry, monitors and keeps track of expenditure under mandatory 10% GBS by non-exempted Ministries/Departments, since inception. As per information received from 51 non-exempted Ministries/ Departments, as on date, under 10% GBS, the actual expenditure in NER has been of Rs. 38845.26 crores as against RE allocation of Rs 40971.69 crores for the year 2017-18 for 54 non-exempted Ministries/Departments. As per PFMS data, the expenditure till 28th December, 2018 is Rs. 19960.66 crores (consisting of release against Central Sector scheme, Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Other Grants/Loans/Transfer to NER states) against the earmarked allocation (BE) of Rs. 47994.88 crore for the entire year.Among other initiatives during the year, the Union Cabinet has approved repositioning of NEC with Union Home Minister as ex officio Chairman & Minister of State, DoNER as Vice-Chairman. The North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS) has been extended till March, 2020 with an outlay of Rs.1000 crore.