Amit Shah to chair North Eastern Council meet on August 3-4

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah will chair a meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Guwahati on August 3-4 during which he will hold discussions with the governors and chief ministers of the eight states in the NorthEast on a wide range of issues, from security to development, in the region.

The NEC is the main advisory body which coordinates with the Centre and other states in the region on issues of development and security. The NEC was restructured in July 2018 when the home minister was made the NEC chairman and the minister for development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) its vice-chairman.

The NEC was set up through the North Eastern Council Act 1971, initially as an apex-level advisory body for securing balanced and coordinated development and facilitating effective coordination among seven states of the northeastern region — Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. Later, Sikkim was added as the eighth member state of the council.

The NEC, since its formation, has focused on improving connectivity in the entire region, which has been a major roadblock for all development activities. The council has helped tremendously in improving the inter-state road connectivity in the region. A total of 10,911 km of roads have been constructed with NEC funding and handed over to the respective states for maintenance.