Union Cabinet Fixes Allocation Of North Eastern Council At Rs 4500 Crore

Guwahati, September 12, 2019:

The Ministry of DoNER has clarified that Union Cabinet had fixed the allocation of North Eastern Council (NEC) as Rs. 4,500 Cr for a period of three years starting from 1st April 2017, which included the allocation required for clearance of certain committed liabilities.

The clarification came after a section of the media alleged that there is a fight between Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M/o DoNER) and North Eastern Council (NEC). Also, it was reported that the Ministry of DoNER has restrained the council from sanctioning of new projects and instead asked NEC to clear the liabilities of NLCPR-Central Scheme of Ministry of DoNER.

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In its official statement, it has been stated, “Out of the said allocation of Rs 4500 Cr, NEC has sanctioned new projects worth Rs. 1741.06 Cr since 1st April 2017. Therefore, the report which appeared in the media is incorrect. During the period, NEC has spent an amount of Rs 2688.33 Cr on various ongoing and newly sanctioned projects. Out of this, only an amount of Rs 343.86 Cr has been utilized for clearing liabilities of schemes transferred from Ministry of DoNER to NEC.”

It has been further stated that the NEC is a statutory body set up under an Act of Parliament and enjoys the requisite autonomy in its functioning and freedom to sanction projects in various Sectors entrusted to NEC as per Cabinet decision subject to the approval of competent authority and availability of requisite budgetary provisions.

During 2017-18 and 2018-19, NEC has spent an amount of Rs 2140.29 Cr on various projects. For the current year, against an allocation of Rs 1476.10 Cr, as on Sep 09, 2019, an amount of Rs 548.04 Cr has been spent on various ongoing & newly sanctioned projects. Reallocation of sectors between M/o DoNER and NEC was done with the approval of Cabinet to avoid overlapping of Sectors.

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