New Delhi, May 18, 2020.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, DrJitendra Singh today discussed COVID follow up with Chief Secretaries and senior officers of the eight States of the North East.

In a one-hour long video conference meeting, representatives from the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura provided their inputs regarding the current scenario with regard to the movements of migrant labourers and others from different parts of the country, the impact of Prime Minister’s 20 lakh crore economic package and assessment about the relaxations to be given in the days to come.

Dr Jitendra Singh, as DoNER Minister, put on record his appreciation of the manner in which all the State Governments had conducted judiciously and intelligently in the wake of the Corona pandemic. As a result of this, Dr Jitendra Singh said, North-East was being appreciated all over, for the manner in which it had managed to contain the spread of the Corona.

While discussing the movements of people from different parts of the country to North East, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a mechanism has been put in place to receive the list of passengers from the respective State Governments and the Ministry of DoNER coordinates with Resident Commissioners and Nodal Officers for smooth processing. He said, every request from the State Government is being seriously followed up and cited the example of yesterday when a train from Gujarat moving to Guwahati also accommodated several passengers of different States including Meghalaya.

In response to a demand from certain States for the resumption of air flight to Guwahati, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the decision will be taken at appropriate time by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. About the resumption of more number of trains, he said, the matter has already been taken up with the Railway Ministry and they have started working on these lines.

Dr.Jitendra Singh said, one of the priorities of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) in the days to come would be to resume the work of development projects which got held up. He said an attempt would be made to put it on fast track so that the scheduled timelines could be met. In this regard, he urged upon all the State Governments to expedite submission of Utilization Certificates and other relevant documents in order to enable the North Eastern Council and DoNER Ministry to make up for the time lost in the wake of COVID pandemic and lockdown.

The Chief Secretaries also gave their assessment about the feasibility of bringing about relaxations in the respective States and different areas in the days to come. They also expressed keenness for the resumption of the held up projects.

Secretary Do NER Inderjit Singh, Secretary North Eastern Council Moses and senior officers of North East Ministry attended the meeting