Amit Shah to meet Guvs, CMs of northeast state on Aug 3-4

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet governors and chief ministers of the eight northeastern states for two days next month to review and discuss with them security situation and development issues, officials said Thursday.

Shah will meet the chief ministers and governors of the region at a plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Guwahati on August 3 and 4.

He will review the progress of various development issues at the NEC meeting, a government official said. Shah is expected to have a separate meeting to take stock of the security situation in the northeastern region.

Governors and chief ministers of the eight northeastern states are members of the NEC, the apex advisory body for securing balanced and coordinated development, and for facilitating effective coordination among them.

The NEC was restructured in July, 2018 with the nomination of the Home Minister as the NEC chairman and the Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) as the vice-chairman.

The NEC was established by North Eastern Council Act, 1971, initially as an apex-level advisory body for securing balanced and coordinated development and facilitating effective co-ordination amongst seven states of northeastern region -- Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Subsequent to the amendment of NEC Act in December, 2002, Sikkim was added as the eighth member state, and the NEC was mandated to function as a statutory regional planning body for the region.

Since its inception, the NEC has focused on improving connectivity of the region which has been a major bottleneck for all developmental activities. In its endeavour, the council has contributed immensely towards the improvement of the inter-state connectivity in the region.

A total of 10,911 km roads have been constructed with the NEC funding and handed over to the states for maintenance.