Fund Projects In Northeast

The finance ministry has asked multilateral institutions to finance at least one project each in the northeastern states, in addition to their existing portfolio.

The ministry is keen on taking credit for such an initiative in the forthcoming budget because it feels that no substantial measure for the Northeast, apart from the existing programmes, can be announced in the budget this time.

It has, accordingly, asked the multilateral institutions to line up one project each for at least those states in the region that are relatively peaceful.

The ministry has contacted the Asian Development Bank, the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation and the International Finance Corporation, among others, to work out the details of the programme from within their existing annual portfolio for India.

The government feels there is a need to correct the impression that externally aided projects are only concentrated in the better-off states.

For the Centre, hamstrung with a limited kitty of Plan funds, any new initiative beyond the 10 per cent non-lapsable fund it had announced a couple of years ago is difficult to undertake. Therefore, the new initiative is expected to give the government some breathing space.

Though sources said the idea was to bring state government officials and representatives of the multilateral institutions together this weekend, with the Centre playing only a facilitators' role, the initiative was being given a lot of importance by the ministry ahead of the budget.