DoNER minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said that his ministry has sanctioned five projects costing Rs 193.32 crore for strengthening health infrastructure for fighting COVID 19 in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
Informing this in the parliament, Singh said, “So far, a sum of Rs 77.33 crore has been released to the state governments for implementation of these projects, including Rs. 38.99 crore to Assam.”
An amount of Rs 25.29 crore has also been released to all the NE States, including Assam by the North Eastern Council (NEC) to assist in combating the pandemic COVID-19 and as well as to provide relief to the stranded youths/people of NER during the time of lockdown.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also released an amount of Rs 303.40 crore to the northeast, including Rs 191.83 crore to Assam for various activities under the Health Sector including for measures to fight corona pandemic, he said.
He said that the central government has taken several measures to support the northeast during the pandemic.
As part of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package, funds have been released to aid and enable the states to ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs and other supplies, he said.
Singh said that the packages like special and comprehensive packages, Atmanirbhar package, and relief measures under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, relief measures for MSMEs and NBFCs, increased allocation under MGNREGS, interest subvention for MUDRA loans and revamp of Viability Gap Funding scheme for social infrastructure, will benefit all the North Eastern States.