[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any may find the Budget 2015 bright for the Northeast region. At least in the language of Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley it appears attractive. Developing the region “on a par with the rest of the country” as stated by Arun Jaitley during his budget presentation on Saturday sounds appealing. But opposition leaders have dismissed Mr. Jaitley’s balm for the Northeast as ‘specific roadmap missing’. They said ‘demands for grants on development schemes’ pertaining to the region are no different from the previous years.
However, putting technicalities aside and taking from a layman’s perspective the intention and the spirit of the Union budget are well appreciated. In the budget the Northeast region is pictured among the Central government’s top priorities for ‘mainstreaming of the region’ (in the words of Arun Jaitley).To develop the Northeast region on a par with the rest of the country by 2022 the Central government has laid a handful of things to start with, in the budget. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences for Assam, an Institute of Science and Education Research for Nagaland and a Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming for Arunachal Pradesh are some important projects decided by the NDA government. Another encouraging development is the increase of amount in the Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources for the region which is proposed at Rs 970 crore, which is higher than last year’s proposal. The proposal for the all schemes of the North Eastern Council is Rs 740 crore which amount is also bigger than the previous one.
Meanwhile, though there are comments with political angles painting the by the budget in a bad light many noted experts claimed that Narendra Modi’s election promises have been delivered in this budget. Some of them have gone to the extent of terming it as ‘a realistic, sustainable and politically honest budget’ though it is far from the so called ‘Big Bang’. One commentator has termed the budget as ‘exemplary’.
So, we look forward that the measure taken up by the NDA government under Narendra Modi is an exemplary one in deeds and not in words.
