Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday said Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia have directed all Northeastern Chief Ministers heading high-level sectoral task forces to ensure the implementation of their recommendations within the next year.
Addressing Media after the 73rd Plenary Session of the North Eastern Council in Shillong, chaired by the Union Home Minister and attended by the DoNER Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers of all eight Northeastern States, Sangma said the meeting marked a significant step towards transforming inter-state collaboration in the region through a structured mechanism involving both State governments and Central ministries.
“It was a very productive meeting, and now we look forward to actually seeing the reports being submitted by these high level task forces being implemented in the next one year. And that is the direction that the union home minister and DONER Minister has given to each of the chief ministers who had one respected high level task force and we hope that we will see a lot of positive results as it would be collaboration between the states of the north east and a coordination between the central Ministries of Government of India and mechanism of making sure that their work together to achieve the common goal,” Sangma said.
Providing details of the deliberations, the Chief Minister said, “Today we had the 73rd Plenary session of the North Eastern Council which was chaired by the Home Minister Amit Shah Ji and in the session are Union DONER Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was also present, all the governors of all the eight States of the north east, and the Chief Ministers of the eight States were present today and all the officials from different states and different Central Government Ministries were also present.”
The CM further said the Centre had earlier constituted National High-Level Task Forces headed by different Chief Ministers to formulate region-wide strategies in key sectors critical to the Northeast’s growth trajectory.
“During the course of the session. There were different aspects of policies that were discussed and I’m very pleased to state that the Union Home Minister and the DONOR Minister had constituted National High Level Task Forces headed by different Chief Ministers on different subjects that were important for the North East. For example, agriculture related task force, tourism related task force, infrastructure related task force, Sports related task force and all these task forces has given their presentation today and they have given report and the way forward in which the entire north east and the different states can work together to push the different agendas that are there and how rather than working as individual States they can work as a United team for the entire north east,” he added.
Highlighting what he described as a fundamental policy shift, Sangma said the emphasis was now on collective regional planning rather than isolated State-level interventions. “Maybe for the first time we are seeing this kind of a policy direction being taken by the North Eastern Council which is something that many have been speaking for a long time. So we are seeing that thought process today finally actually fructifying,” The Chief Minister said.
He further asserted that the NEC was evolving into a strategic institution capable of shaping the developmental vision of the region. “NEC from being just in funding agency, today has become into a policy agency and agency that’s creating different thought processes for the north east and the different states in the region.”
