NITI Forum for the Northeast

Shillong, Apr 9: The first meeting of a newly constituted NITI Forum for the Northeast will be held at Agartala in Tripura on Tuesday.

The meeting will be chaired by NITI Aayog vice-chairman, Rajeev Kumar and Union minister of state (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Jitendra Singh.

Chief ministers of states in the Northeast among others will attend the deliberations.

Before departing for Agartala, NITI Aayog vice-chairman and the Union minister addressed a press conference at NITI Aayog in New Delhi on Monday.

Emphasizing the need to identify constraints, streamline resources and add renewed focus on the North Eastern Region, the vice-chairman and the minister spoke about the theme for the first meeting, “Moving Towards a Prosperous North Eastern Region.

Agendas listed for the first meeting include, strategies for improving road, rail and air connectivity in the North Eastern Region, realizing the hydel dream – way forward for utilizing existing potential for hydro-power in the North Eastern Region, agriculture and allied sectors – North Eastern states to encourage organic farming, cultivation of vegetables, fruits, spices, medicinal plants, soil health card for farmers, minimizing post-harvest losses, increased coverage under crop insurance, and milk production to be boosted.

The other agendas include water management− early completion of ongoing irrigation projects, promotion of tourism such as eco-tourism, rural tourism and adventure tourism, strengthening of North East Tourism Development Council (NETDC) and NETDC should work closely with NE States for tourism promotion, and encourage organically-themed Home-Stay Tourism (as in Sikkim) in other North Eastern states

The meeting will also focus on identifying and targeting early bird projects in areas of connectivity, agricultural productivity and industrial development to give fillip to growth in the North Eastern Region.

The ‘NITI Forum for North East’ was constituted in February this year with an aim to ensure sustainable economic growth of the North Eastern Region and periodically review development status in the region.

A secretariat for the NITI Forum has been established in the DoNER Ministry. The Forum includes representation from all North Eastern states, their chief secretaries and secretaries of relevant Central ministries/departments, directors of reputed institutions (IIT, IIM etc), experts and journalists have been included as members.