DoNER minister holds first meeting with northeast MPs; briefs them about schemes

DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh Thursday briefed MPs from northeastern states, including the newly elected ones, about various schemes and programmes of the central government being run for the development of the region, a government statement said.

This is the first meeting of these MPs with the ministry after the Modi 2.0 government was sworn in recently.

Singh told the Members of Parliament, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, that the Centre will act for improving the lives of northeastern people in close coordination with the elected representatives from various states of the region.

He said the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) is the only region-based ministry in the government and in the past five years it has given due priority to the development of this region under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the statement said.

"The purpose of the meeting was to brief the MPs about the ongoing schemes and future plans of the government in the region," it added.

Singh told the MPs that various procedures to usher development works in the region have been simplified in order to expedite the execution of projects and to curb the unnecessary delay.

The minister added that the chief ministers and resident commissioners of different states based in Delhi have been requested to coordinate with the ministry and follow up with the officials about the development projects for various states, the statement said.

The Union minister said issues related to enhancement of budgetary allocation for development of northeastern states are being discussed with the Finance Ministry that will soon present the general budget for the country.

The MPs were also briefed about the North Eastern Council (NEC), which was established in the year 1971, it said.

During the interaction, the MPs discussed development-related issues pertaining to their areas as they expressed pleasure that a chief nodal officer and a nodal officer has been nominated by the DoNER Ministry for their states.

The MPs expressed their wish to be briefed about the status of development projects of their areas on a regular basis, the statement said.