NEC session to be held in Agartala from Dec 20; Amit Shah, DoNER Minister to attend

Agartala, Dec. 7: The three-day plenary session of the North Eastern Council (NEC), a regional planning body for the eight states of the region, will be held in Agartala from December 20, officials said on Thursday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, other union ministers concerned and top officials of the Central government and eight north-eastern states will attend the meeting of the NEC in Agartala on December 20-22.

The NEC plenary session was supposed to be held on August 31 and September 1 but it was postponed due to the devastating floods in Tripura.

An official of the Tripura Planning Department said that the progress of various ongoing and proposed development projects, the India-Bangladesh border-related issues, and other important matters were scheduled to be discussed in the three-day NEC meeting, where the Governors and Chief Ministers of all the eight north-eastern States and senior officials of NEC and DONER Ministry would attend.

The Union Home Minister, in the previous NEC meeting in Shillong, had said that in the 50 years of its establishment, the NEC has increased the pace of development of the region by providing a policy-related platform to all the States and simplifying the solutions to their problems.

He had said that in these 50 years, more than 12,000 km of roads have been constructed in this region, 700 MW power plants have been established and many institutes of national excellence have also been established under the guidance of NEC.

Highlighting the role and scope of NEC under the Act East Policy, the Home Minister had said that in the last few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has achieved significant success in solving the problems of law and order, insurgency and borders in this region.

The devastating floods in Tripura have left at least 40 people, including women and children, dead, and several others injured in landslides and drowning in six districts.

The Tripura government demanded around Rs 15,000 after the unprecedented flood and landslides triggered by record quantities of rainfall in August damaged a huge number of public and private properties, infra- structures and crops.

- With inputs from IANS