NE states receive INR 111.32 crore to fight Covid-19

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Feb. 10 (EMN): Under the National Health Mission towards management and containment of Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India, has released INR 111.34 crore to the north eastern states during 2019-20. Out of the total amount, INR 72.53 crore was for Assam.

This was informed by the Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, a PIB report stated.

Further, he also informed that during the Financial Year, 2020-21, INR 265.96 crore was released to the NE states, which includes INR 180.04 crore for Assam under the India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package.

In addition, the Ministry of DoNER under North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) had sanctioned five projects worth INR 193.32 crore in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland for strengthening health infrastructure to contain pandemic Covid-19, the report stated. Against these projects, INR 77.33 crore has been released by the ministry to the state governments, it added.

Further, North Eastern Council (NEC) sanctioned INR 25.29 crore during 2020-21 to help the eight states of north eastern region for fighting the pandemic, the report informed.

The report stated that NEC also sanctioned INR 24.96 crore towards livelihood generation for returned migrant workers of NER due to the pandemic.

Projects sanctioned for strengthening health infrastructure of NE states for fighting pandemic Covid-19 are at various stages of implementation, and the utilisation certificates against the funds released by the Ministry of DoNER are not yet due, it stated.