Year End Review: Ministry of Development of North-East Region

What is the News?

The Ministry of Development of North-East Region (MDoNER) has taken several initiatives to ensure development of the North East region.

Some of these initiatives are: 

North Eastern Region District SDG Index

National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm(NMEO-OP): It is a centrally sponsored scheme with a special focus on NE Region and A&N islands.Under this, 50% of the new cultivation is targeted for NE Region.

Atma Nirbhar Hastshilpkar Scheme

Monitoring and Geo-Tagging of projects in NE Region: ISRO is monitoring and Geo-tagging projects in all the 8 NE States funded by MDoNER or North Eastern Council(NEC). This is the first of its kind in the whole country, where there is an institutionalised involvement of ISRO in mapping and sharing of data for developmental projects.

Protection of Culture and Tradition of North East: The Government of India has set up North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) at Dimapur an eastern Zonal cultural (EZCC) at Kolkata (Autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture) to protect and promote the rich and diverse traditions and culture of NE Region.

North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) 

North Eastern Council: Several schemes undertaken by it are:

Rural Economic and Livelihood Project: It is being implemented by North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Society (NERCRMS), a registered society under the aegis of North Eastern Council.

North Eastern State Roads Investment Programme (NESRIP): It was launched in 2011. The scheme envisaged construction/up-gradation of total 433.425 km long roads in 6 North Eastern States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing loan assistance for the programme.

North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS): It was launched during the Financial Year 2015-16. Under this, NEC undertakes up gradation of roads which are : a) important and strategic interstate roads which were not properly maintained by either of the two States b) roads in socio-politically neglected pockets of NE region c) roads required for security or strategic viewpoint, not covered in any other programmes; and d) roads necessary from the viewpoint of market access.

Source: This post is based on the article ‘Year End Review: Ministry of Development of North-East Region’ published in PIB on 29th Dec 2021.