No decision to turn NEC into regional planning body: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Government has not taken any decision to convert the North Eastern Council into a regional planning body, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

During the Question hour, Congress member Bhubaneswar Kalita sought to know if the government was thinking of reducing the existing North Eastern Council as a regional planning body, thereby defeating its purpose.

He claimed that the NEC used to get direct funding from the erstwhile Planning Commission and feared that the region would lose financial assistance if any change is carried out.

In his response, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said "the government has not taken any decision as is anticipated by Hon'ble member."

To another query raised by Congress member Ripun Bora on whether special category status to eight Northeastern states and three Himalayan states has been discontinued, the Minister said "North East states and three Himalayan states have a special category funding even under the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission."

With regard to core schemes, the funding pattern all over the country remains same. With regard to other core schemes for Northeastern and three Himalayan states, the funding pattern is 90:10 which for other states is 60:40.

For optional schemes implemented in the Northeast and the Himalayan states, funding pattern is 80:20, he added.

Responding to another query, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said the devolution to the states was increased from 32 to 42 per cent following the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.

This has led to increase in the transfers to states from Rs 3,37,808 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 5,23,958 crore in 2015-16, an increase of Rs 1,86,150 crore, he said, adding that more money has gone to Northeast also.