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NE gets 'old wine in new bottle' from PM

Nitin Gogoi

"Old wine in new bottle!" That's the only way to describe the outcome of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's two-day conclave with governors and chief ministers of seven north-eastern states, held at Meghalaya's capital Shillong over the weekend.

Although a Rs 102.71 billion "agenda for economic development" for the north-east was announced by Vajpayee at the end of the conference, a closer look at the details shows that some of the schemes -- like border fencing and road construction along the Indo-Bangladesh frontier -- are on-going projects and some others like the grant of Rs 5 billion from the non-lapsable pool of funds have been a mere transfer of heads.

Significantly by announcing a new "package" -- although the government has studiedly avoided calling it a "package" -- the two earlier packages announced by then prime ministers H D Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral worth Rs 61 billion (1996) and Rs 72 billion (1997), have been given a go-by.

When specifically questioned whether the Rs 102.71 billion fund would be over and above the 10th Plan allocation, Vajpayee said only some of the projects would be financed from funds outside the Plan allocation while most of it would be from the usual plan allocation.

He also said that only a few of the projects included in the new package are time-bound while others are not. "Our efforts would however be to complete them in the shortest possible time," he said. The North East Council, which the government hopes would be reinvigorated in the coming days, would be the nodal agency for implementation of the projects although the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) would be monitoring the progress of the schemes, Vajpayee announced.

The two-day meeting, attended by Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission K C Pant, was the first of its kind in the region. As Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga said: "It is as if the entire Indian government has shifted to Shillong." At the end of the two-day conclave however several questions remained unanswered.

Reactions to the package have been mixed. The Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has called it "the most pragmatic and realistic approach towards the problems of the north-east."

The Assam Pradesh Congress has also welcomed the package but said: "It is not clear whether it is a fresh package or the extension of the earlier ones." Party spokesman Pankaj Bora said: "What is the guarantee that this package too would not meet the fate of the earlier two."

Manipur Chief Minister W Nipamacha Singh was effusive in his praise for Vajpayee. "It showed that the Centre has started realising the existence of the north-eastern states as part and parcel of India. It of course will depend upon us in the region as to how much pressure we can exert on the Centre to implement these schemes."

Most analysts agree that the intentions of the successive governments at Delhi have been noble but the implementation has been tardy. As K C Pant put it very succinctly: "If the benefits of the funds reach a maximum number of intended beneficiaries, we would have achieved our aim." Unfortunately, the development process has hardly reached the grassroots in the region so far.

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