Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio along with other Northeastern region chief ministers met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi to discuss financial situation of the NE states earlier this week.
According to Assam Tribune report, Rio had opined that the economy of his state was a salary economy with deficiency in development while the government was the sole employer.
However, Nagaland government was basically tight-lipped on the agenda the chief minister may have taken to the meeting which also saw discussions with the Finance Minister.
Prior to attending the meeting, a Nagaland government official informed that Rio and his team would draw attention with issues related to “non plan expenditure” of Nagaland state and other “financial problems.” However, it was not elaborated on what they specifically were to discuss about.
Pranab Mukherjee had convened the ‘special meeting’ reportedly to evolve strategies to accelerate development.
Pranab has assured that the Centre would help the NE states, including Nagaland to raise loans from the market to aid development of state infrastructure and communications sectors.
As part of the Centre’s commitment to assist the Northeastern states in developing their communications and infrastructural needs, Mukherjee informed the chief ministers that he has ‘asked’ the income tax authorities to exempt tax on permitted excise duty refunds for industries in NE.
He has assured the chief ministers ‘all possible help’ to implement infrastructure projects, with a view to speed up development of the region as part of the country’s Look East policy.
He further said “if any State faced a problem on account of an undersubscribed market loan, the Centre would be ready to raise the loan within the permitted borrowing ceiling, and pass it on to the concerned state.”
Addressing the CMs, Pranab said Centre was aware of the special issues of the region, including a low- base to mobilize resources, and a geographical terrain that created challenges for communication and infrastructure development.
He said based on an appreciation of these challenges, the Centre had accorded special category status to NE states to assist them in their efforts to raise their economies to the level of other states.
Replying to issues raised by the CMs of NE states, Pranab said interventions for the second green revolution in eastern states have shown positive results.
He said due to the said green revolution, the production of rice in eastern states has risen by 7 million tonnes, resulting in overall rice production in the country of over 100 million tonnes for the first time,” the statement said.
It added that Mukherjee appreciated the “better fiscal management” by most NE states as a result of which most states did not have to resort to overdrafts.
The chief ministers present at the meeting included Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland, Tarun Gogoi of Assam, O Ibobi Singh of Manipur, Pawan Chamling of Sikkim, Mukul Sangma of Meghalaya, Nabam Tuki of Arunachal Pradesh and Lal Thanhawla of Mizoram while Tripura was represented by its finance minister Badal Choudhary.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission and BK Chaturvedi member Planning Commission was also present.
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