Need to re-look into the need for NEC and DoNER ministry warranted: FICCI

Industry body - Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has called for a re-look into the need for having an agency in the form of North Eastern Council (NEC) and a ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) for undertaking 'developmental' works in the region.

Besides asking for a revamp and re-look of the whole system, it has come up with a suggestion to set up an authority or a corporation which would be singularly in charge of implementing all developmental and infrastructural projects in North-East.

According the industry body, the Centre needs to revamp the system for development of the region as track-records of both NEC and DoNER do not inspire much confidence. FICCI has also demanded a performance-audit of both NEC and DoNER ministry. NEC was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament and it claims to be the "nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region". The DoNER ministry was created by erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

"The mandate of DoNER was to tubro-charge the development pace in North-East. But it has ended up as another agency between the governments of North-Eastern states and the Centre. It is better to deal with the Centre directly than through agencies. Both DoNER and NEC have failed abysmally in delivering goods to the region," said Ranjit Barthakur, chairman of FICCI's North East Advisory Council.

He said just announcing money was of no use unless the Centre ensured that the money would be used in a time bound manner to deliver goods. "Let there be a corporation to implement Central projects in the region. Let it be given a corpus fund and list of projects and corresponding deadlines. The Centre then can hold the boss or the CEO of the corporation answerable if it fails to deliver. That's how things should move I believe," Barthakur added.

FICCI has come up with the suggestion that Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), the Central government and state governments of the eight North-Eastern states be made stakeholders of the Corporation.

Barthakur rued that in the present system both DoNER and NEC had no accountability. "I don't know who is going to measure the works of DoNER?  Who will hold DoNER accountable, the Prime Minister or the governments of North-Eastern states? What about the Non-Lapsable Centre Poll of Resources (NLCPR), what has DoNER done with it till now we don't know anything. What has DoNER done for sectors like agriculture, animal husbandry and tea, which are backbones of the region's economy?" asked Barthakur.

Coming down heavily on NEC, he said: "See the profile of the members of NEC. It seems NEC has become a house of retired people. This is crazy. We have to question the fundamentals behind having such agencies."

Barthakur said FICCI is scheduled to meet Arun Jaitley, the Union finance minister, on June 16 to put forth the suggestion of forming a corporation or an authority for North-East before him.  It also has a suggestion for building a 4,000 km long 'Ring-Road' running parallel to region's international borders, which would also connect all the North-Eastern states.