NEW DELHI: The Centre will release Rs 1,25,000 crore to the eight north-eastern states by 2012, an increase of more than 50% over the Tenth Five Year Plan. The government is also planning 226 air links between the North-east and the rest of the country and 592 internal flights for the region to improve connectivity. “For fiscal 2007-08, the government will extend Rs 15,000 crore, 90% of which will be in the form of grants to the eight state governments,” minister of development of north-eastern region Mani Shankar Aiyar said at the third North-east business summit organised jointly by the ministry and the Indian Chamber of Commerce. The Centre spent Rs 80,000 crore towards the region during the Tenth Five Year Plan. Dispelling the notion that the entire north-eastern region was insurgency-prone, Mr Aiyar said law and order situation in many parts of the region was better than that in Mumbai and Noida. “It is extremely erroneous to say that the North-east is insurgency-prone. There is absolutely no law and order problem in Sikkim, in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram,” he said. Further, security personnel were available at short notice to the states. In the roads sector, the government would be investing Rs 50,000 crore in the region by 2012. Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh favoured improvement of surface connectivity between the North-east and Asean countries for speedy economic development.
Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling said with the signing of free trade agreement with the Asean countries, the north-eastern region would play a vital role in the formation of East Asian community
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