GANGTOK, Nov. 16: A Public Hearing on ‘Draft Vision NER 2020’ will be held at Chintan Bhawan in Gangtok on 17 November.“It was intended that there would come a paradigm shift in the planning process and the future plans for the North East Region (NER) will be people’s plans that would be formulated for achieving the targets and goals enunciated in this Vision NER 2020 document,” said an official. “North East Council (NEC) took the initiative for this vision document in 2005 and now the culmination of the process of formulation of this document has come,” an official added.Ms Sushma Singh, the secretary of DoNER, will make the presentation at the public hearing. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi has published a draft of the ‘Vision NER 2020’ document for an informed public debate on the same. “The Vision Document has been prepared in two stages ~ the first stage involves the people of the region and the members of the civil society from whom responses were collected on the ‘Vision for the NER in 2020’, said an official. “The second of which was done by the NIPFP on the basis of the final document collating the responses received from the first stage” an official added.The salient points emerging from the public hearing would be duly considered for the inclusion in the Final Vision Document. It is likely to be attended by a council of ministers, MLAs, zilla adhyakshyas, upadhyakshyas, head of departments, district collectors, DDOs, representatives from various trade organisations, NGOs and local gentry
