Highest priority accorded to NE region in budget: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said the hallmark of the Budget 2020-21 is that it accords the highest priority to the overall development of the Northeastern region. Singh said the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) saw a hike of over 14 per cent from Rs 2,670 crore last year to Rs 3,049 crore in 2020-21

"The Union Budget has accorded highest priority to the Northeastern region and the budget for the North Eastern Council (NEC) has been doubled from Rs 700 crore to Rs 1,474 crore in the last five years," he told reporters here. Singh, the minister for DoNER, said the budget has accorded the highest priority to the overall development of the Northeastern region keeping in tune with the vision and declaration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.

He said there is a constant and progressive rise in funds for the development of the Northeastern region since 2014. Singh said that in case of the Ministry of DoNER, the budgetary allocation for 2020-21 is Rs 3,049 crore as against Rs 2,670 crore in the Revised Estimate (RE) 2019-20.

Of the total Rs 3,049 crore, the provision for development of infrastructure is around Rs 2,900 crore compared to Advance Estimate (AE) 2014-15 of Rs 1,719 crore. The budget allocation of the Ministry of DoNER in 2020-21 is higher by 77.26 per cent, he said.

In case of schemes being implemented by the North Eastern Council (NEC), the current year's budgetary allocation is Rs 1,474 crore, an increase of 19.23 per cent over RE 2019-20 allocation of Rs 1,237 crore. The minister said besides policy of 10 per cent Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) to Northeastern region, the Gross Budgetary Support to 54 non-exempt ministries increased by 12.62 per cent in Budget Estimate (BE) of 2020-21 at Rs 60,112 crore over RE 2019-20 at Rs 53,375 crore.

The minister highlighted that in 2014-15, actual expenditure on 10 per cent GBS was at Rs 23,819 crore. In 2020-21, BE would be Rs 60,112 crore, thus an increase of 142 per cent over the previous fiscal.

Singh said the ministries with an allocation of more than Rs 1,000 crore for the Northeastern region include the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare (Rs 13,380.98 crore), the Department of Telecommunication (Rs 1,332 crore), the Department of Health and Family Welfare (Rs 5,000 crore). The other ministries are Department of School Education and Literacy (Rs 4,705.66 crore), Department of Higher Education (Rs 2,721.30 crore), Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Rs 2,149.40 crore), Ministry of Labour and Employment (Rs 1,137.16 crore), Ministry of Power (Rs 2,067.50 crore), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Rs 6,780 crore), Department of Rural Development (Rs 5,608.35 crore) and Ministry of Women and Child Development (Rs 2,972 crore).

The Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Department of Posts have seen significant increase in their NER Budget. Singh said the expenditure of the Ministry of Railways and several other ministries are not included in the above figures.

The Railways itself has spent Rs 31,849 crore in NER from 2014-15 to 2019-20. Similarly, the Airport Authority of India spends a substantial portion of its budget for upgradation of airports in the Northeast, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)