Imphal, January 07 2009: CHIEF MINISTER of Manipur, Okram Ibobi has demanded transparency in the functioning of the North Eastern Council (NEC) citing that due to lack of transparency, member states of the Council were "most often not aware whether their priority projects will be funded by the NEC or not".

The demand was one among several others which O Ibobi raised at the 57th Meeting of the NEC held today in New Delhi, officials here said.

Chief Minister, O Ibobi who was scheduled to attend the meeting and speak had to fly back to Imphal without attending the meeting due to certain sudden changes in his itinerary, and his speech was reportedly read out by Principal Secretary, Home, DS Poonya.

The meeting which discussed the revised estimates for 2008-09 budget of the NEC and modified 11th plan of the Council for the next three years was attended among others by the state Governor, Gurbachan Jagat and a high level delegation led by state Chief Secretary, Rakesh.

Manipur, mention may be made here, has been complaining for a long time that the Council lacks equitable share of resources amongst the member states and the state has been getting least share of the budgetary allocation of the Council.

The North Eastern Council is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region which consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The North Eastern Council was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament.

The constitution of the Council has marked the beginning of a new chapter of concerted and planned endeavour for the rapid development of the Region.

Over the last 37-year, NEC has been instrumental in setting in motion a new economic endeavour aimed at removing the basic handicaps that stood in the way of normal development of the region and has ushered in an era of new hope in this backward area full of great potentialities.

In today's meeting, delegation from Manipur reportedly said that consultation with the states for preparation/modification and revision of NEC's five year and annual plans should be done in a meaningful and in a transparent manner.

"The methodology followed by Ministry of Development of North East Region, DoNER to obtain annual priority list of projects from each state should be adopted by the NEC too, Singh demanded while expressing state's willingness to pay visit by the sectoral heads to the members states and coordinate effectively with the concerned state line departments while keeping the state planning departments informed.

"Due to lack of transparency in the functioning of NEC secretariat, the states most often are not aware whether their priority projects will be funded by the NEC.

The existing procedures being followed by the NEC secretariat do not help in increasing the comfort level of the member state," the speech of prepared for the chief minister read out by the principal secretary (planning) DS Poonia quoted reportedly said.

Working out of a formula or methodology for equitable distribution of resources amongst members states as decided in the 56th planetary session of the NEC, he recalled.

The Manipur delegation also demanded NEC to accord priority to capacity building and skill upgradation of NEC and state government officials so that NEC projects are executed efficiently and effectively.

NEC should not insist on 100% utilization of NEC instalment released and release of state share before release of next installment, the state demand citing that expressing state's willingness to adopt the methodology followed by the ministry of DoNER for release of instalment under Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resource which based on the utilization certificate for utilization of 75% of the earlier installment.

Any delay in the release of next installment impacts on the completion of the project, Manipur observed in the 57th Council meeting of NEC held today at New Delhi in which Governors and chief ministers, chief secretaries along with officials of the other member states also gathered and presided by the Union DoNER minister, Mani Shanker Aiyer.

Comment