The Fiftieth Meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) and the First Meeting of the re-constituted North Eastern Council will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, here tomorrow. The main agenda of the meeting is NEC as Regional Planning body. The meeting will be presided over by the Minister of Tribal Affairs & Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), Shri P.R. Kyndiah, , who has taken over as Chairman of NEC.
All the Governors and Chief Ministers of North Eastern Region including Sikkim, who are Members of the Council, will attend the meeting along with three nominated Members, Shri P.P. Shrivastav, Dr. (Mrs) I K Barthakur and Shri B.N. Yugandhar, Member, Planning Commission and Ex-officio Member, NEC.
NEC was constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1972 with its Headquarters at Shillong. Earlier, the Governors of the North Eastern States used to chair NEC on rotational basis. The Parliament amended the NEC Act and in pursuance to the amendment, the President has nominated the Union Minister, DONER as the Chairman, NEC.
The deliberations of the meeting will focus mainly on NEC as Regional Planning Body to formulate plans and processes for all round balanced development of the North Eastern Region.
It may be recalled that the government stressed its commitment to the goal of rapid development of the North Eastern region of the country by taking two important decisions last year. It upgraded the department of North East Region to the status of a ministry and it took steps to revitalise the North East Council (NEC).
AKS/NSR
(Release ID :8525)