The Minister of the Tribal Affairs and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Shri P.R. Kyndiah hailed the Budget 2006-07 as a pro-poor, pro-growth and pro-people budget.
Shri Kyndiah has said that the Tribal Affairs Ministry has been given its due importance. The North Eastern Region has no doubt, got a fair deal. The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region , (DoNER) including North Eastern Council is getting due share of importance and focus. The bulk of the resources– Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, Total Sanitation Campaign, National Rural Health Mission, Integrated Child Development Services, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The budgetary provision for the development of North Eastern Region has been increased from Rs.1176.00 crores to Rs. 1350.00 crores and the Tribal Affairs Ministry gets Rs.1656.90 crores from Rs.1498.82 crores. The NEC budget has been increased from Rs. 461.50 crores to Rs. 600.00 crores, which amount to 30% increase. The NEC budget was stagnated for the last five years and this increase shows the deep commitment of the UPA Government for the North Eastern Region.
10% of the plan Budget of each Ministry and Department for schemes and programmes in the North Eastern Region (NER) is to be added. For the flagship programmes alone, this would amount to an additional allocation of Rs.4,870 crore in 2006-07. The total budget allocation for the NER is Rs.12,041 crore which includes Rs.1,350 crore provided to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER). From BE 2005-06 to BE 2006-07, the step up is 18 per cent.
On a like to like basis, the allocations for schemes benefiting only SCs and STs have been enhanced by 14.5 per cent to Rs.2,902 crore and the allocations for schemes with at least 20 per cent allocation for SCs and STs have been enhanced by 13.9 per cent to Rs.9,690 crore. A special accelerated road development programme for the North Eastern Region at an estimated cost of Rs.4,618 crore has been approved. For 2006-07, a sum of Rs.550 crore has been provided. A Central Institute of Horticulture is to be established in Nagaland. The region will also benefit from enhanced allocation for Horticulture and renewed thrust on food processing industry.
PKM/UB
(Release ID :16059)