PROCEEDINGS OF THE 64TH PLENARY OF NORTH EASTERN COUNCIL (15th Meeting as the Statutory Regional Planning Body for the NER) ON 9TH AND 10TH APRIL, 2015 AT THE SCOPE AUDITORIUM, SCOPE COMPLEX, 7, LODHI ROAD, NEW DELHI ****** I N D E X Agenda Items Contents Page No Summary of the proceeding of first day 1 – 8 including – Power Point Presentation by the Central Ministries and discussions on the progress of major infrastructure projects in NER Opening Remarks of Chairman, NEC and 9 – 10 Secretary’s Report on the second day of the proceedings Comments and summary of written speeches 10 – 85 of the Hon’ble Members of the NEC Agenda Item No. 1 Confirmation of the Proceedings of the 63rd 85 Plenary of NEC held on 02.01.2015 Agenda Item No. 2 Tabling of the Action Taken Report on the 63rd 85 Plenary Agenda Item No. 3 Approval of the Draft Annual Plan 2015-16 85 Agenda Item No. 4 Approval of the Revised NEC General 85 – 86 Guidelines Agenda Item No. 5 Approval of the Scheme for Rehabilitation/ 85 – 86 Construction of State Guest Houses at Shillong with NEC funding Annexure – I Address of Hon’ble Chairman, NEC in bullet 87 – 94 points Annexure – II Power point presentation made by Secretary, 95 – 101 NEC on major issues of concern of NER on 9.4.2015 Annexure – III (A) Power Point Presentation on the Report of 102 – 110 Secretary, NEC Annexure – III (B) Full Report of Secretary, NEC 111 – 154 Annexure – IV List of Orphan Roads proposed for 155 – 157 Rehabilitation in Arunachal Pradesh Annexure – V Observations on the agenda items of 64th 158 – 163 Plenary by Secretary, DoNER and NEC’s comments thereof Written Speeches of Hon’ble Governors and 165 – 284 Chief Ministers Annexure – VI List of participants 285 – 292 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 64TH PLENARY OF THE NORTH EASTERN COUNCIL HELD AT THE SCOPE AUDITORIUM, SCOPE COMPLEX, NEW DELHI ON 9TH AND 10TH APRIL, 2015 1. 9th April, 2015 – FIRST DAY 1.1 Hon’ble Minister of DoNER (I/C) and Chairman, NEC, Dr. Jitendra Singh chaired the meeting. Hon’ble Governors of 6 States and 5 Chief Ministers attended the meeting. Hon’ble Governor of Meghalaya & Mizoram and the Chief Ministers of Assam, Sikkim and Mizoram could not attend. Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju participated as special invitee in the inaugural session on first day. 1.2 At the outset, Secretary, NEC formally welcomed all the participants to the meeting. 1.3 The meeting started with the lighting of traditional lamp by the dignitaries. After the initial pleasantries, a group photograph was taken. 1.4 Hon’ble Minister DoNER and Chairman, NEC released the latest NEC publication “Basic Statistics of the North Eastern Region - 2015” which has been printed after a gap of nine years. 1.5 The Hon’ble Minister DoNER and Chairman, NEC launched the North Eastern Region Tourism Website www.northeasttourism.gov.in. This would be followed by e-commerce enabled website before the end of December, 2015. 1.6 Hon’ble Minister for DoNER and Chairman, NEC made a small power point presentation with photographs of important milestones. The highlights are as follows:- (a) An innovative approach of taking DoNER Secretariat to the NE States to look into grievances of the States has started and is named as “DONER at Doorstep” (DAD). Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have been covered already. (b) Inter-ministerial Committee in Delhi has been started for consultation with Secretaries of Central Ministries. Consultation has been held with Ministry of Tourism and the consultation with Ministry of Civil Aviation would be held in the subsequent week. (c) Meetings with the MP’s of the North Eastern States to solicit their views for speedy development of NER have been started. The first meeting was held on 19th December, 2014. 1 (d) A mechanism for regular interaction with Resident Commissioners of the NE States in Delhi to sort out pending issues has been started and the first such interaction was held on 28th January, 2015. This would ensure speedy resolutions of the pending issues of the NE States with the Central Ministries. (e) Meetings have also been planned with the North East community and Delhi-based NE Region Officers for better understanding of the region. The first of such meetings was conducted in January and February, 2015. (f) On the direction of the Hon’ble Prime Minister for touring the North Eastern States, at least eight Union Ministers have started visiting the region every fortnight from the month of February, 2015 to understand the ground realities. (g) Mention was made about the establishment of a Sports University in Manipur, an AIIMS like institution in Assam, a Film Institute in Arunachal Pradesh and six new agricultural colleges in the NE Region under the Central Government funding. (h) Mention was also made about proposal for the establishment of Hostels for NE students in JNU and in Delhi University and about a hostel for girls which has already been sanctioned for Bangalore University. (i) Announcement was also made for establishment of a “Brahmaputra Study Centre” in the Gauhati University, the oldest University in the region. (j) In respect of Air Connectivity, announcement was made about the starting of the Indigo flight in the Delhi – Kolkata – Dimapur sector. This will meet the long standing demand and will provide direct air connectivity to Delhi from Dimapur. Further, it was mentioned about the resumption of Kolkata – Silchar Air India regular daily flight. 1.7 The written speech in bullet points of the Hon’ble Minister DoNER and Chairman, NEC was distributed in the meeting and the same is placed at Annexure – I. 1.8 Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju made a short speech. Some of the points made by him are as follows:- (a) Ministry of DoNER would have to play their coordinating and supportive role to the North Eastern States in respect of projects being implemented in the region. (b) The priorities accorded by the States in respect of NEC and NLCPR projects should not be diluted. 2 (c) Ministry of DoNER and NEC should work in tandem to project a positive image of the Region in the corridors of the Central Ministries. (d) The idea for organizing 2 days Council meeting was welcomed. As was done earlier, NEC could also organize some sector specific summits for in depth discussion on the emerging issues. 1.9 The main agenda for the first day was the power point presentation by the Central Ministries on the initiatives, projects etc in the NE Region. Before the actual starting of the Power Point Presentation, Secretary, NEC presented a few slides incorporating the main issues and expectations of the NE States from different Ministries. The presentations of the Secretary, NEC could be seen at Annexure – II. 1.10 Hard copies of the power point presentations of the Ministries were distributed in the meeting and subsequently after the meeting the same were sent separately to the Hon’ble Members of the NEC and the State Governments for record and perusal. Since the presentations were voluminous they are not annexed here again and only highlights based on interactions on the ppt presentations are given here. 1.10.1 The first power point presentation was from the Ministry of Railways and was given by Shri R.S. Virdi, General Manager, NF Railways, Guwahati. The highlights of his presentations are:- (a) Railway Ministry to complete Bogibeel Bridge by June, 2017. (b) For Rail lines to Tawang & Parsuramkund, survey work has been done. (c) DoNER Ministry was requested by Railways Ministry for Rs.315 crore for land acquisition of Agartala-Akhura rail line. (India portion). (d) Imphal –Moreh rail line project for 111 kms costing Rs.5000.00 crores has been proposed to Railway Board. 1.10.2 The presentation on Ministry of Road Transport & Highways was given by Shri S.K. Nirmal, Chief Engineer, MoRTH. The highlights are:- (a) The Council unanimously resolved and recommended breaking up of tenders into smaller packages not exceeding Rs.50 crore to enable reliable local contractors to participate and build their contracting capacity. (b) East- West corridor upto Silchar to be completed by December, 2015. 3 (c) Proper coordination has to be established among BRO, MoRTH and the State PWD for upkeep and maintenance of constructed roads. (d) If necessary, a special force could be constituted for providing security at the construction site of the major road projects. (e) The welfare of construction labours at the site should be taken care of by the concerned agencies to get good quality work output. (f) Inter ministerial Committee with the MoRTH would be constituted shortly by Ministry of DoNER. This Committee, if necessary, would get in touch with Hon’ble Governors and the Chief Ministers. 1.10.3 The presentation on air connectivity was given by Shri Venkataraman Hegde, Director, MoCA. He was assisted by two officers from AAI. The highlights are:- (a) Flights from Yangon, Mandalay, Bangkok and Singapore to NER are required to be enabled. (b) Tezu Airport to be completed by 2015. (c) Request was made by AAI for 100% funding by Government of India of NER projects due to operational losses in the region instead of current 60% funding provided by NEC. (d) Frequent interactions with the State Government should be the norm for the MoCA on the issues of Greenfield airports proposed in Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and also on the issues of land acquisition in the expansion proposals of various airports.