What is the North Eastern 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 North Eastern Council which was set up as a Regional Advisory Body under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971 was transformed into a Regional Planning Body by the 2002 amendment.
- The Council has as its members the Governors of the States mentioned above, the Chief Ministers of the said States and three Members nominated by the President. The President will nominate the Chairman of the Council and he need not be nominated from amongst the other Members and the secretariat is in Shillong.
Functions of North Eastern Council
- 60 % of the NEC budget is allocated among the 8 NE states as per a formula based on various development indices. The remaining 40% Budget of NEC set aside for the Central component would be available for Central Ministries and agencies for taking up such regional projects which are necessary for the region and are iconic in nature and cannot be covered by the on-going schemes of the line Ministries.
- The strategy for NEC would be to encourage the State Governments to fully leverage funds from the Central Ministries/Central organisations and then use NEC funds for meeting critical gaps not covered under the Central schemes/programmes.
Objectives
- The NEC shall be a state-of-the-art resource centre for the North Eastern Region with the necessary resources, knowledge and skills.
- NEC shall focus on issues in emerging areas of livelihood entrepreneurship, venture funds, start-up and skill development enabling in generating jobs.
- Piggery, bamboo, regional tourism, livelihood projects are some of the focus sectors.
- The NEC shall enable the states and the implementing agencies to properly plan and execute projects, promote research and innovation and provide strategic policy vision for the region.
- NEC would focus on interstate projects having wide ranging impact and on selected areas of critical nature.
