North Eastern Council (NEC)

The North Eastern Council is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region which consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and functions under Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (Government of India) and situated at Major District Road 32, Mawkasiang, Meghalaya 793012.

The North Eastern Council was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament. The constitution of the Council has marked the beginning of a new chapter of concerted and planned endeavour for the rapid development of the Region.

With the passing and implementation of the North Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) Act, 1971, the region emerged as “Seven Sisters” comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. While strategy to reconcile national unity with the maintenance of socio-economic identities induced by the historical realities led to the re-organisation of the north eastern areas administratively, the constraints specific to the region, as a whole such as physical, demographic, economic and socio-political made it imperative to constitute a regional “Planning Body” to integrate them and to accelerate development of the area maintaining at the same time the balanced inter unit growth. This led to the inauguration of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in November,1972.

         NEC has been instrumental in setting in motion a new economic endeavour aimed at removing the basic handicaps that stood in the way of normal development of the region and has ushered in an era of new hope  in this backward area full of great potentialities.

The objective of the North Eastern Council (NEC), as envisaged by the North Eastern Council Act of 1971 is to ensure that the existence of the political units in the North East of India does not affect its economic development that their rapid economic integration is facilitated and that the problems of the region are dealt with as an integrated whole. The dealings of the council, as envisaged in the Act are chiefly with the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance and to a lesser extent with the Ministry of Defence and the approach of the council to the Government of India was through the North Eastern Cell of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Council is an advisory body and may discuss any matter in which the north-eastern states have a common interest and advise the Central Government as to the action to be taken on any such matter. This was done so as to take care of economic and social planning of these states (since they were lagging from other states) and to take care of inter-state disputes.

The development concerns of these States are pursued through their respective Five Year and Annual Plans as well as those of the Union Ministries and Central Agencies. In addition, projects of inter-State nature in the Region are funded through by the North-Eastern Council (NEC), which has a separate additional budget for the purpose.

The North East has essentially depended on Central funding for development works. All the States in the NER are Special Category States whose Development Plans are centrally financed on the basis of 90% Grant and 10% Loan. Further, the Special Category States are allowed to use up to 20% of the Central Assistance for Non-plan expenditure.

The Act was amended in 2002 to (i) redefine the functions of the NEC as a regional planning body for the north eastern region, (ii) include Sikkim as a member state of the NEC and, (iii) provide for three members and the Chairman of the Council to be nominated by the President.

NEC include discussion on matters of common interest to the member states and/or the union government, on issues falling under the fields of: (i) economic and social planning, (ii) inter-state transport and communications, and (iii) power or flood control projects.

In addition to Governors, Chief Ministers of the states, and Administrators of the union territories, the Act also provided membership to one of the Counsellors to the Administrators to the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh.  In place of the Counsellors, the Bill introduces two non official members to be nominated by the President. Further, it provides for the inclusion of one member of the Planning Commission of India, in charge of the north eastern region.

The office of a nominated member shall be three years, and may be extended for a further period of two years. The allowances of such members may be determined by the central government.

The Council under the Department of Development of North-Eastern Region, which was formed within the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2001, has been upgraded to full-fledged Ministry in 2004.