Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 16 (EMN): The North Eastern Council (NEC) has released an amount of INR 25.29 crore to all the north-eastern states, including Nagaland, to assist in combating Covid-19 and to provide relief to the stranded people of the region during the lockdown.
This was informed by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr. Jitendra Singh, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, on Wednesday.
So far, Nagaland has received INR 3 crore from the NEC, which has been directly credited to the department of Health and Family Welfare, as per the state government source.
Singh further informed that the ministry of DoNER under its North East Special Infrastructure Development (NESID) scheme has sanctioned five projects costing INR 193.32 crore, including INR 97.48 crore to Assam, for strengthening health infrastructure to fight Covid-19 in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
Under this scheme, an amount of INR 77.33 crore, including INR 38.99 crore to Assam, has been released to the state governments so far, for implementation of these projects, the minister informed.
“Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also released an amount of INR 303.40 crore to North Eastern States, including INR 191.83 crore to Assam for various activities under the Health Sector including for measures to fight corona pandemic,” read the minister’s reply issued by PIB.
The ministry stated that funds have been released to the north-eastern states as part of the Covid-19 emergency response and health system preparedness package, in order to “aid and enable the states to ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, and conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs and other supplies”.
“The packages like Special and Comprehensive packages, Atmanirbhar package, and relief measures under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, relief measures for MSMEs and NBFCs, increased allocation under MGNREGS, interest subvention for MUDRA loans and revamp of Viability Gap Funding scheme for social infrastructure, etc. will benefit all the north-eastern states, including Assam,” it added.