Imphal, January 07 2009: Along with kicking off the annual meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) from today at the Annexe of the Parliament House with DONER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer in the chair, the NEC has approved construction of two new roads in Manipur apart from setting up an Inter State Truck terminus at Imphal.

According to an official source from New Delhi, after a detailed deliberation on the report of the Task Force headed by Secretary of NEC which proposed to allot 10 percent of the total fund of the Central Ministries, the meeting attended by many Governors, Chief Ministers, Chief Secretaries of the North Eastern States among other officials has approved all the recommendations given in the said report.

In the meeting today, Governor Gurbachan Jagat, Chief Secretary Rakesh and Principal Secretary (Planning) DS Poonia of Manipur participated, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh could not attend the meeting as he had to return to Imphal following death of a relative.

Nonetheless, during the course of discussion on the proposals of the State Government, NEC has approved funding for construction of Kangpokpi-Tamei and Thanlon-Sinjawl road.

This is over and above the construction of the Tamei-Tenning Road, Churachandpur-Singat Road and Singat-Sinjawl Road which are currently underway with funding from NEC, the official disclosed.

Moreover, on top of the earlier approval on construction of an Inter-State Bus Terminus at Imphal at an estimated cost of Rs 26 crores, the NEC has also given its node to the proposal of setting up an Inter-State Truck Terminus at Imphal, the source informed, adding that it has also been decided that the Works Department should submit a detailed project report in this regard.

During the meeting today, Manipur had strongly advocated for an Inter-Region Power Transmission system so as to resolve the problem of getting their respective power share by Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya from Regional Grid as well as to upgrade the existing 132 KV power line of the grid to 220 KV.

For development of human resources, the State had not only proposed that the teacher training programme could be carried on with funding from NEC, but had also offered that all the District Institutes of Teacher Education set up every district could be utilised for the purpose.

The Government of Manipur had also proposed to the DONER and the NEC for sponsoring the Regional, National and International level tournaments hosted by the State and providing incentive awards to meritorious sports persons.

Apart from discussion on allocating one percent of the budget of NEC to activities related to promotion of culture and enhance funding on sports and road construction, the meeting chaired by DONER Ministry had also decided to increase the annual budget of NEC from Rs 624 crores to Rs 1000 crores, the source further disclosed.

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