STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi has urged the DoNER Ministry and the North Eastern Council (NEC) to continue providing financial assistance for developmental programmes in the Northeastern region in general and Assam in particular.
Addressing the 70th plenary meeting the NEC here on Sunday, Mukhi said, "Assam is strategically located and Guwahati is the gateway to the Northeastern region. It is needless to mention that any development project taken up in Assam would, as a natural corollary, ensure that the benefits accrue to other States as well. Hence, projects having multi-state impact should be given higher priority by the Ministry of DoNER for funding through NEC. For all round development of NE region, support from NEC is of utmost importance."
Mukhi said that the North-East holds tremendous potential and, therefore, all should collectively try to tap its potential to the fullest and usher in a new paradigm of development.
The Governor added, "In this session we hope to discuss State-specific special needs and projects, developmental packages, strategies for focused development, setting up of long-term goals and formulate policies for implementation and address the important issues affecting the Northeastern States. I am hopeful that the deliberations during this plenary meeting and the decisions reached by the Council would help in achieving even more meaningful contribution towards faster socio- economic development of the region."
Mukhi mentioned that the Northeastern States are bound together by certain common factors that affect all of them, such as its landlocked character, transport bottleneck, and in-accessibility to access markets of the neighbouring countries. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined his vision for development of North-East with special focus on connectivity among others. Fast completion of infrastructure projects and provision of basic amenities in each and every household is the need of the hour, the Governor said.
Mukhi further said that the NEC has an important role to play in the success of the path-breaking Act East policy of the Prime Minister, particularly on issues relating to trade, investment, tourism, dependable connectivity and building relations with Southeast Asian countries in close coordination with various ministries of the Central Government.
In this context, Mukhi suggested that the NEC should consider setting up of a Language Academy to facilitate teaching as well as research on different languages spoken in the North-East and the countries in ASEAN and BBIN bloc. A thrust on digital economy and e-governance is also the need of the hour for overall development of the economy, he added.
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