AGARTALA/SHILLONG — The eight
northeastern states would seek the full help of the North Eastern Space
Application Centre (NESAC) to monitor various developmental projects, flood
control, irrigation, tourism, afforestation and agriculture work in the region.
A top
official of the NESAC said that for the past several years the northeastern
states have been using the technologies of the space application centre,
situated in Meghalaya’s Umiam.
“An
important meeting of the NESAC will be held in Agartala on December 22 to
review the various works and outcomes of the NESAC. Union Home Minister Amit
Shah and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) Chairman Dr S. Somanath
would attend the meeting,” the official told IANS.
The
Union Home Minister is the President of the NESAC Society while the ISRO chief
is the Chairman of the NESAC Governing Council.
In a
bid for the proper, effective and timely implementation of numerous projects
and schemes, the Central government has been monitoring their progress and
accuracy through satellite, drone and mobile apps, the official said.
He said
that several hundred projects were identified in over 2,000 different locations
across the eight states and these have been geo-tagged through satellite images
and mobile apps.
According
to the official, the Union Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
(DoNER) in collaboration with NESAC has developed a project monitoring mobile
applications.
The
NESAC was established in 2000 as a joint initiative of the Department of Space
and the Shillong-based North Eastern Council (NEC).
The
NESAC review meeting on December 22 is a part of the 72nd Plenary Session of
the NEC, to be held in Agartala on December 20-21.
Amit
Shah during the previous NEC meetings also urged the Chief Ministers to make
full use of facilities at the NESAC for flood control, irrigation, tourism,
afforestation and agriculture work in the region.
The
Home Minister had said that the Centre is committed to making the northeast
flood and drug-free within the next few years. He has issued an appeal to keep
North Eastern states free from the use of single-use plastic for environmental
protection.
“Work
has also been done to promote the use of technology in administration by using
the NESAC,” the Home Minister had said.
It was
decided in the earlier meetings that each state in the northeast should appoint
a nodal officer for NESAC in their respective states to maximise and better
utilise the facilities available at the space application centre.
In the
Plenary Session of the NEC, DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region)
Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Governors and Chief Ministers of eight
northeastern states and top officials of the Central government and all
northeastern states will attend.
The NEC
plenary session was supposed to be held on August 31 and September 1 but it was
postponed due to the devastating floods in Tripura.
An
official of the Tripura Planning Department said that the progress of various
ongoing and proposed development projects and other important matters were
scheduled to be discussed in the NEC meeting.
The
Union Home Minister, in the previous NEC meeting in Shillong, had said that in
over 50 years of its establishment, the NEC has increased the pace of
development of the region by providing a policy-related platform to all the
states and simplifying the solutions to their problems.
He had
said that in these over five decades, more than 12,000 km of roads have been
constructed in this region, 700 MW power plants have been established and many
institutes of national excellence have also been established under the guidance
of NEC.
Highlighting
the role and scope of NEC under the Act East Policy, the Home Minister had said
that in the last few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has achieved
significant success in solving the problems of law and order, insurgency and
borders in this region.
With
its headquarters in Meghalaya's capital Shillong, the NEC, a regional planning
and statutory advisory body for the eight northeastern states including Sikkim,
was constituted under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971, and came into being
on November 7, 1972.
