Jitendra Singh chairs high-level meet, reviews ongoing projects of North East region

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with top officials of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the North Eastern Council, and took stock of the ongoing projects of the region, according to an official statement.

He was informed that all the Northeastern states have provided data for the Education and Research Network (ERNET), paving the way for bringing the North Eastern Region (NER) under the ambitious Digital India Programme to make the citizens digitally empowered in the field of technology, it said.

Singh, the Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region, was briefed about a hostel for North Eastern students being constructed in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

The engineering team said the work is likely to commence by September first week, the statement said.

The hostel, the first-of-its-kind in JNU, will accommodate 408 students. In addition, 24 rooms have been earmarked for Divyang students of the NER, it said.

The status of the North Eastern Cultural and Convention Centre, to be set up in Dwarka in New Delhi with an estimated cost of Rs 94 crore, was also discussed.

The minister gave some suggestions to make it more futuristic and said it will act as a cultural and convention or information hub of the NER in New Delhi, the statement.

Singh also suggested for making arrangements for putting up exhibitions and stalls of North East products and handicrafts in Jammu and Kashmir so that connectivity between North Eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir may be increased, the statement said.

While taking stock of the initiatives and projects to be implemented in the region, the minister said NER's development has been the government's priority which will make all efforts for the implementation of ongoing development projects in NER.

Singh was also briefed about the preparations for the upcoming North Eastern Council's 68th Plenary Meet to be held on September 8-9 at Guwahati.