North Eastern Council to come under direct control of Home Ministry

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to bring the North Eastern Council under the direct control of the Home Ministry.

The council, which is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern region, was till now chaired by the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister.

"The Cabinet decided that now Home Minister will be the ex-officio chairperson of the Council. The DoNER Minister will be the Vice Chairman," Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who also holds the temporary charge of Finance Ministry, told reporters here after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The new arrangement would provide a forum for discussing inter-state matters more comprehensively, he said.

"This repositioning will help the North Eastern Council to become a more effective body for the North Eastern region," Goyal said.

He added the North Eastern region was among the government's top-most priorities and it wanted to see the council emerge as a "very effective body".

The North Eastern Council, which has Governors and Chief Ministers of all eight northeastern states as its members, implements various projects through state and Central agencies.

Under the new arrangement, the Council will now also perform the tasks undertaken by the various zonal councils to discuss such inter-state issues as drug trafficking, smuggling of arms and ammunition and boundary disputes, said an official statement issued later.

"The Council shall, from time to time, review the implementation of the projects and schemes... recommend effective measures for coordination among the state governments for these projects," it added.