Agartala, Dec 10
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Governors and Chief Ministers of all eight northeastern states will attend the 72nd Plenary Session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Agartala next week.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, after reviewing the preparedness of the two-day event, said that on December 20, an official-level meeting would be held and on the next day, the main session would be held at Pragya Bhavan here.
The Chief Minister said that Union Minister Shah would come to Agartala on December 20 to attend the NEC meeting the next day.
Governors, Chief Ministers, Deputy Chief Ministers, top officials of the Centre and eight NE states would attend the important NEC meeting, CM Saha told the media, adding that the progress of various ongoing and proposed development projects would be discussed in the two-day vital meeting.
He said that a review meeting of the works and planning of the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) would be held on December 22.
A senior official said that the Union Home Minister and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) Chairman S. Somanath would attend the NESAC meeting.
The Union Home Minister is the President of the NESAC Society while the ISRO chief is the Chairman of the NESAC Governing Council.
Through satellite-based imageries and studies, the NESAC, situated in Meghalaya's Umiam, helped the northeastern states in planning, preparing and monitoring diverse projects ranging from agriculture to various infrastructures.
The NEC plenary session was supposed to be held on August 31 and September 1 but it was postponed due to the devastating floods in Tripura.
The Union Home Minister, in the previous NEC meeting in Shillong, had said that in the 50 years of its establishment, the NEC has increased the pace of development of the region by providing a policy-related platform to all the states and simplifying the solutions to their problems.
He had said that in these 50 years, more than 12,000 km of roads have been constructed in this region, 700 MW power plants have been established and many institutes of national excellence have also been established under the guidance of NEC.
Highlighting the role and scope of NEC under the Act East Policy, the Home Minister had said that in the last few years, the Modi government has achieved significant success in solving the problems of law and order, insurgency and borders in this region.
With its headquarters in Meghalaya's capital Shillong, the NEC, a regional planning and statutory advisory body for the eight northeastern states including Sikkim, was constituted under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971, and came into being on November 7, 1972.