Trade bodies and the state governments in the Northeast hoped that the Prime Minister's Development Initiative for the Northeast (PM-DevINE), announced in the Union Budget with an initial allocation of Rs 1,500 crore, would revamp infrastructure and create more employment in the region.
"Allocation of Rs 1,500 crore towards various infrastructure projects across the North-East shows that the union government is committed to the development of the region.
"The Northeast region hopes that the new North East Investment & Industrial scheme, which is expected to be announced by March this year, would provide for spurring investment in the North East which has come down from 8.3 per cent in 2017 to 0.02 per cent in 2019, after the NEIIPP 2007 was over," Federation of Industries and Commerce in the Northeastern Region (FINER) said while reacting to the union budget on Tuesday.
Vinod Lohia, director of FINER welcomed the focus on the development of infrastructure like rail, road, housing, water.
Tea Association of India said the emphasis on providing piped drinking water and housing would benefit the tea garden workers in Assam, the state producing more than 52 per cent of tea produced in the country.
"However the emphasis laid on blending of fuel leaves the door open for levy of additional differential excise duty of Rs 2 per litre from October this year for unblended fuel. This would give rise to the cost of production for tea industry," secretary-general of the association, PK Bhattacharjee said.
Union ports and waterways minister and former Assam CM, Sarbananda Sonowal said the PM's special initiative would create more opportunities to further explore potential of the Northeast region.
Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma said his state would get Rs 100 crore more this year itself due to the decision to enhance allocation to the states. He said his government plans to propose a project for the construction of new administrative city in Shillong under the PM's new initiative announced in the budget.
Under the PM-DevINE, to be implemented through North Eastern Council (NEC) plans to fund infrastructure, in the spirit of PM GatiShakti, and social development projects based on needs of the North-East.
It seeks to establish dedicated services for the management of paediatric and adult Haemotolymphoid Cancers in North East, Guwahati (Multi-State) with allocation of Rs 129 crore, NECTAR's livelihood improvement project, promoting scientific organic agriculture, a pilot project for construction of bamboo link roads in Mizoram, gap funding for passenger ropeways in Sikkim, besides others.
Check out latest videos from DH:
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks