NEC initiates public hearings for accelerating economic development

Shillong, Oct 29 (UNI) The North Eastern Council(NEC) has initiated public hearings on the draft Vision 2020 for accelerating economic development in the region.

In an effort to maximise benefits from the Look East Policy(LEP), the first of the 12 public hearings took off in Silchar today with the others lined up in eight other NE States.

The draft Vision 2020 was aimed at economic acceleration of the NE as a single entity, while respecting the political independence of the eight North Eastern states, NEC Secretary Falguni Rajkumar told reporters here.

''As the NEC status has changed from an advisory body to a planning body in 2005, there was now a greater need to plan for the economic development of the entire NE region,'' he said.

According to the NEC draft Vision 2020, the Northeastern states will have to grow at 11.8 per cent or at least 10.5 per cent in per capita to catch up with the rest of India in 2020.

He said that in order to achieve this growth, Mr Rajkumar felt the growth process has to be done in three plan periods.

Mr Rajkumar said the NE States would have to work as one entity to face the challenge of globalisation and reap the benefits of the LEP. The Vision document was prepared in two stages. He informed that in the first, people and members of the civil societies of the region had been involved. He said around 40,000 responses had been collected on the economic aspirations of the people. The second stage was conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi collating the recorded responses.

UNI