Vision document signed for North East development

Agartala, May 13 (UNI) The Chief Ministers and Governors of Northeastern states today signed the Vision 2020 document here with a mission to strengthen development in this region.

Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and Chairman of North Eastern Council (NEC) Manishankar Aiyar and three members of NEC had signed the document on behalf of the Union Government, which was prepared by Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance Policy(NIPFP).

Addressing the media after signing the document, Mr Aiyar said the document held ideas and concepts for promotion of sustainable programmes for deveopment of the region through a participative process of planning and implementation.

He pointed out that initially NEC would assess the resources of the states and other contributory financial supports from the concern state governments, following which the implementation of vision would begin.

Mr Aiyar said economic development did not itself ensure eradication of poverty but requires both technical identification of the parameters of poverty and community involvement in the identification process.

''Special efforts have to be made to identify families living the poverty line, especially the substantial chunk constituting the poorest of the poor and other vulnerable sections of the society,'' he underscored.

Mr Aiyar said the purpose of the vision document was to return North East Region to the position of national economic eminence to fashion the development process that growth spring from and spreads out to the grassroots.

He said the idea is to ensure that the region played the arrow-head role in India's Look East policy and added, ''It is further recognised that an imaginative leap in foreign policy, defence policy and internal security policy as much as in investment, infrastructure and commercial policy, is required to end the region's geo-political isolation and put it on the path to accelerated and inclusive growth''.

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