Rajnath Singh to chair NEC meet in Shillong on Monday

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the 67th plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC), a regional planning body of eight northeastern states, here on Monday, an official said.

Governors and Chief Ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura - who are also members of newly reconstituted NEC - will attend.

Monday's meeting will be first chaired by the Union Home Minister after the Union Cabinet brought the NEC under the direct control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Home Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of the council while Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister will be its Vice Chairman.

The first session of the NEC meeting will include tabling of an action-taken report on the 64th plenary and approval of the draft annual plan of NEC for 2018-19 by the council.

Some of the major issues to be discussed are transformation of several districts in the region, strengthening livelihood programmes, water resources management, catchment area treatment through afforestation, doubling farmers' income by 2022, road connectivity, 'Poshan Abhiyan' to address malnutrition, Ayushman Bharat (national health scheme) and security related matters pertaining to the northeastern states, among others.

The plenary will also discuss continuation of NEC schemes till March 2020 as approved by the Cabinet in March 2018.

--IANS

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