AGARTALA, April 10 (TIWN): DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh following a successful meeting with NITI Aayon members in a historic event of NITI Aayog formation from Agartala said, "21% rise in fund utilization in Northeast during last 3 years". "The funding under DoNER has also hiked at its highest level in last four years. This year the budget was under DoNER at 100 % central allocation 29,634 crores, which is around 6000 crores of hike in last 3 years". "Earlier the funding was 90 : 10 ration, but under the Modi Govt it is now 100 % central central allocation led by DoNER Ministry", Singh said. "There was a gap of 70 years long without implementation of developmental schemes in Northeast. Under the new govt transparency will be maintained along with accountability", the DoNER Minister added. Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajeev Kumar said, "The outcome of the meeting begins with the summery of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said recently, that's is HIRA for Tripura". "Highway, Internet-way, Roadway, Airways development has been added by our special focus on skill development, which will surely turn the Northeastern states into HIRA", he said.

"We have basically 5 missions according to the NITI-forum's decision : 1) Horticulture, 2) Tourism, 3) Bamboo production, 4) Made-in-Northeast, 5) Food processing". The forum also announced to open showrooms for Northeast in all Districts of the country. IT and Industry will also be given much priority, Rajeev Kumar further added.

"The connectivity ofcourse comes in the first row of the developmental agenda. In case of Airways, you can say UDAN project is undergoing its 3rd phase. It has been aimed to connect all the capital cities with the Airports directly. In case of road connectivity, we have decided to boost the intra-regional connectivity as the basic problem lies in that", Kumar said.