Zeliang, Sarkar slam Centre for abolishing Plan panel

[caption id="attachment_75463" align="alignnone" width="501"] Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang and his Tripura counterpart Manik Sarkar at the Northeast Connectivity Summit in Agartala on Thursday.[/caption] Agartala, September 22 : Chief Ministers of the North Eastern region, TR Zeliang and Manik Sarkar, today criticised the central government for abolishing the Planning Commission and forming NITI Aayog . "All the North Eastern states are facing problems of money after abolishing of the Planning Commission and forming NITI Aayog," Zeliang, Chief Minister of Nagaland, said. "Every state is now losing money because it is not clear how the plans would be finalised and implemented. All the states in the region were facing crisis of funds in implementing projects," he said. During the time of the Planning Commission, there was a scope for discussion between the state government and the Commission for finalising the plan outlay, but this scope has faded away, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said. "For the last 28 months after NITI Aayog was formed, there has been no discussion between it and Tripura government regarding planning," Sarkar said, adding Tripura was losing over Rs 1800 crore per year after formation of the Aayog. Zeliang and Sarkar were addressing a three-day business summit, jointly organised by FICOS and the Tripura government, on connectivity of the North-East and opportunities in international trade and commerce. Zeliang said, "It is the need of the hour to convert the Act-East policy into a reality so that people of the region get its benefits. It is necessary to build up infrastructure for implementation of the policy. Connectivity with the neighbouring countries is an important point for its implementation." Sarkar said the central government should pay more attention to build infrastructure like roads, railway, air telecommunication without which the Act-East policy would be of no meaning. Representatives from Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the North-East states participated in the summit which will be concluded tomorrow. Zeliang also emphasised on building road infrastructure, development and people-to-people connectivity. He opposed the border fencing with Myanmar, and instead asked the central government to undertake more developmental projects along the India-Myanmar border. Sarkar said due to the central government's impractical policies, resources of the northeast remained untapped. Addressing the summit, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy said it would aid, facilitate and monitor governmental schemes, plans and projects in the country. The three-day summit has been organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and supported by the Tripura government. Ficci's North East Advisory Council Chairman Ranjit Barthakur said that during the three-day summit experts, diplomats, officials and investors would discuss infrastructure development, information technology, healthcare, agriculture, bamboo plantation, connectivity, development of border infrastructure and development of road, air and water connectivity in the region. Meanwhile, a Nagaland CMO release said the fourth edition of the Summit scheduled for September 21 to 23, 2017 in Nagaland and accordingly Nagaland Chief Minister has extended invitation to all delegates to attend the Nagaland edition of the summit.