The NITI Aayog has constituted 17 sub-groups on 17 thematic areas consisting members from civil society organizations, Central ministries and departments and sector related to United Nations Agencies as members of the sub-groups to look into different projects in Northeast.
“The mandate of these Sub-Groups is to work on 17 sectors and come up with tangible action plans,” said DoNER minister Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
As per instructions of the Ministry of Finance, continuation of schemes of the Ministries and Departments beyond the 14th Finance Commission period requires an independent evaluation.
Evaluation of schemes implemented by the North Eastern Council has since been completed.
“The work of evaluation of schemes implemented by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region has been awarded,” he said.
He said that to deal with the situation arising from pandemic due to COVID-19, the Government announced Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan with the aim of making the country self-reliant and to focus on local manufacturing, local market and local supply chains.
The COVID-19 situation was regularly reviewed and coordinated action was taken by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.
“To mitigate the difficulties of people in the North Eastern States, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and North Eastern Council sanctioned untied funds amounting to Rs 25.00 crore to combat COVID-19 pandemic in 8 NER States,” he said.
Projects worth Rs 25.00 crore have also been sanctioned to NER States for livelihood generation for returnee migrant workers due to COVID-19.
In the health sector, five projects worth Rs 193.32 crore have been sanctioned under North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland for strengthening health infrastructure for fighting COVID-19.