NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein attended the Pre-Budget Meeting of the Central Government convened by the Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman at New Delhi today.
Reiterating non-availability of funding from multilateral development banks and other international financing institutions to Arunachal Pradesh for stated and unstated reasons, he requested the Ministry of Finance to consider an appropriate mechanism to fortify the State against the capital, technical and opportunity losses.
He suggested Govt of India to consider providing project specific grants at the rate of Rs.1500 Cr per year under any window similar to erstwhile Special Plan Assistance (SPA). As an alternative, he also proposed for an interest free 50-year loan at the rate of Rs.1500 Crore per year over and above the normal borrowing limits prescribed by the FRBM Act for consideration.
Secondly, he raised the issue regarding the urgency in development of areas near international borders. We have seen unprecedented growth in the border infrastructure during the last 5-7 years, however, he said that the depopulation of border areas for want of better infrastructure is a reality and poses a serious challenge in the background of series of model villages and infrastructure is being developed across the border with the aim to increase the population.
He also informed that the State Government is pursuing a composite proposal for border areas including multiple projects like construction of roads, drinking water, health and education infrastructure, Installation of micro hydel-power projects, and solar streetlights in the border areas. Once sanctioned, this project would provide much better infrastructure in the border areas with resultant boost in the economic activities encouraging the people to return to their native places, he said and earnestly requested the Govt of India for an early clearance of this project which is under active consideration with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Mein also sought for flexibility to be given to NE states to design customized projects in particular sector wherever the Ministries are not able to spend 10% GBS on their earmarked schemes and programmes in the NE region and to seek funding from the balance of 10% GBS. He stated this will ensure increased capital expenditure in NE and also would not distort the inter-se allocations within the specified sectors.
He also suggested for development of manufacturing capacity in the region to create jobs, which in turn would improve the livelihood of the people and impressed upon Govt of India to facilitate creation of investor friendly frameworks and a specific policy on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir or the Hill States for the NE region. 
He further requested GOI to set up a special task force for improving trade, connectivity and economic infrastructure in the North East Region for providing specific and actionable recommendations for the next ten years citing that task force can also be entrusted to empirically analyze the cost disabilities in NER so that we provide suitable and necessary cost indexing for projects in NER. He further requested for doubling of allocations under the schemes of the North-East Council (NEC), Department of North-East Region (DoNER) and Border Area Development Programme (BADP) from the current very low levels.
DCM was accompanied by Prashant Lokhande, Commissioner (Planning & Investment), Govt of Arunachal Pradesh.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
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