Cabinet approves continuation of Schemes of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region for the balance period of the 15th Finance Commission

The Union Cabinet has approved continuation of Schemes of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region , with an outlay of ₹12882.2 crore, for the balance period of the 15th Finance Commission (2022-23 to 2025-26).

Based on the Expendidture Filnance Committee (EFC) recommendations, the outlay for the North East Special Infrastructure Scheme (NESIDS) will be Rs.8139.5 crore including committed liabilities of ongoing projects. The outlay for ‘Schemes of NEC’ will be Rs.3202.7 crore including committed liabilities of ongoing projects. The outlay for Special Packages for BTC, DHATC and KAATC in Assam is Rs.1540 (BTC- Rs 500 crore, KAATC – Rs 750 crore and old packages of BTC, DHATC & KAATC – Rs 290 crore). The NESIDS, a Central Sector Scheme with 100% Central funding, has been restructured having two components – NESIDS (Roads) and NESIDS (Other than Road Infrastructure).

The Ministry’s new scheme “Prime Minister’s Development initiative for the north eastern region - PM-Devine” (with an outlay of Rs.6, 600 crore), has been approved earlier in october-2022 separately, under which larger and high impact proposals under infrastructure, social development and livelihood sectors are taken.

The objectives of the schemes of the MDoNER is to supplement the efforts of the different Central Ministries & Departments on one hand and the felt needs of the NE Region States on the other, for uncovered development/welfare activities. The MDoNER Schemes help provide gap-filling support to the eight North Eastern States as per their felt needs, by taking up projects – e.g., for developing infrastructure to mitigate connectivity and social sector deficits and enhancing livelihood and employment opportunities in the region. 

Extension of the approved schemes for the balance of the 15th finance commission period, i.e. upto fy 2025-26, would

• Enable better planning for implementation of the schemes in terms of project selection,
• Front loading of sanction of the projects, and
• Project implementation during the scheme period

 Efforts will be made to complete maximum number of the projects by 2025-26 so that there are minimum committed liabilities beyond this year. Therefore, schemes would have new sanctions in 2022-23 and 2023-24 primarily; while expenditure would continue to be incurred during 2024-25 and 2025-26. focused attention will be given to complete the ongoing sanctioned projects.

The Five pillars of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan for self-reliant India, namely, Economy, Infrastructutre, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand will get a push through the scheme.

The government has made development of North East a major priority.

The actual expenditure in last 04 years under MDONER schemes was Rs 7534.46 cr. whereas, the fund available for expenditure in next four years till 2025-26 is Rs 19482.20 cr (2.60 times approx)

The  Prime Minister has announced a package of Rs. 550 crores to illuminate border villages of Arunachal Pradesh.

For the first time district level SDG Index has been set up. The second version of the SDG index is ready and about to be released soon.

Source : PIB