Planning Commission meeting with North East states begins in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: A two-day meeting between the Planning Commission and the Northeastern states for preparing of the 'Approach' paper to the 12th Plan (2012-17) began today in Guwahati.

The Planning Commission team for the meeting will be headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The meeting is fifth and concluding regional consultation with Northeastern states to take their views in order to prepare the Approach paper that seeks to raise India's economic growth to 9-9.5 per cent, official sources said.

While chalking out the priorities for the 12th Five Year Plan, the meeting would look into the area specific projects and programmes suitable for the North-East states, laying stress on the priority sectors to achieve the desired growth rate, they added.

Chief ministers of eight states of the region -- Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are participating in the meet, the sources said. The meeting is also being attended by union DONER minister B K Handique.

The Commission has already completed discussion on the document with four regions -- North, East, West and South.

The sources added that the document will be placed before the Union Cabinet for consideration and then before the country's highest policy making body National Development Council ( NDC) any time after the Parliament's Monsoon session scheduled from August 1.