United Progressive Alliance, Report to the People 2010-11

Addressing Special Development Needs: the North-East  

 

1. Securing Peace

The security situation in some of the North-Eastern states has shown improvement in 2010 as compared to the previous year in terms of number of incidents of violence and causalities of civilians and security forces.

Government of India representatives have been appointed to hold talks with some of the militant groups from Assam and Meghalaya. Meanwhile, Naga peace talks continue.

2. Infrastructure development in the North-East

In 2010-11, 1615 km of roads have been sanctioned, for an amount of Rs. 9160 crore, under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the North-East (SARDP-NE). The total expenditure incurred under the programme is about Rs. 1067 crore and a length of about 146 km has been completed till March, 2011.

Connectivity in North-East Region

Air connectivity in this region has improved. While 286 flights were scheduled for summer 2010, the number now stands at 370 for summer 2011.

A sum of Rs. 11.61 crore was released by the North Eastern Council, as the first instalment, for the upgradation of Tezu airport during 2010-11.

An extension of viability gap funding to M/s Alliance Air for providing air services in the North-Eastern region has been approved for the year 2011 at a cost of Rs. 47.07 crore.

In 2010-11, as on 15.3.2011, 6971 villages have been electrified, 11183 villages have been intensively electrified and electricity connections have been released to 7.03 lakh BPL households under RGGVY.

Under the PM’s Package Project on electrification/illumination of all villages along the border of Arunachal Pradesh, 726 villages have been electrified through solar lighting and micro hydel power plants.

3. Addressing special needs

During the year, 151 infrastructure projects, at an estimated cost of Rs. 1526.29 crore, were sanctioned under the Non- Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) scheme. Some of the major projects include construction of RCC Bridge over River Aie, Assam; the Upper Shillong Water Supply Scheme, Meghalaya, Upgradation of Lengpui airport, Mizoram and Transmission Projects (Phase-I) of Tripura. 25 projects at a cost of Rs. 237.60 crore were completed during the year and Rs. 805.77 crore was released for various projects under NLCPR.

The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFC) has sanctioned new loans amounting to Rs. 421.24 crore during the year. The total amount disbursed against these was Rs. 281.33 crore.

4. Assam Gas Cracker Project

The Assam Gas Cracker Project is being implemented through a Joint Venture Corporation M/s. Brahmaputra Cracker & Polymer Limited (BCPL) at Lepetkata, Dibrugarh, Assam. The total cumulative expenditure as on 31.03.2011 is Rs. 2167.46 crore.

5. Youth mobilization

As a result of training received under the various capacity building schemes, 1497 unemployed youth got employment.

Transforming Cities

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 14 projects have been approved during the year 2010-11 at an approved cost of Rs. 2,930.21 crore, and Additional Central Assistance (ACA) commitment of Rs. 1,073.61 crore, under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance component of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Since inception, a total of 530 projects have been approved. 13 projects have been approved during the year 2010-11, at an estimated cost of Rs. 101.89 crore, and ACA commitment of Rs. 90.45 crore under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). Under the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) and the Integrated Housing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) components of the Mission, the focus is on housing and basic amenities to the urban poor, especially slumdwellers. Cumulative physical and financial progress of BSUP and IHSDP, as on 31.3.2011, is as follows: More than 22 lakh houses, covering 1,517 projects, with an outlay of Rs. 40,301 crore have been sanctioned. Grants by way of ACA to the tune of Rs. 21,770 crore have been committed and cumulative release of ACA by the end of the financial year 2010-11 was Rs. 10,625.27 crore. 64 mission cities have been covered under BSUP and 863 cities/towns have been covered under IHSDP. 8.6 lakh houses for the urban poor had either been completed or were in progress under BSUP and IHSDP, as on 31.3.2011. Mass transport During the last one year, a total of 73.3 kilometre of Metro lines was added in Delhi and other parts of the National Capital Region. With this, the total length of the Metro network in Delhi and NCR has become 186.72 kilometre. A new Metro project was taken up in Hyderabad for 71.16 kilometre, at an estimated cost of Rs. 12132 crore, besides the ongoing Metro projects of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata (East-West Metro Corridor) and Mumbai. In addition to the above, ‘in principle’ approval has been given for Stage-1 of the Jaipur Metro Rail Project, to be implemented by the State government from its own resources. A total of 15,260 modern buses, enabled with Intelligent Transport System (ITS), were sanctioned for 61 cities under JNNURM. About 11,100 modern ITS-enabled buses have already been delivered. This has transformed the city transport scene across India. Housing for the urban poor Rajiv Awas Yojana: Rajiv Awas Yojana aims at ushering in a slum-free India by encouraging States / Union territories to tackle the problem of slums in a definitive manner. The scheme, which is at the final stages of formulation, envisages a new deal for slum-dwellers and the urban poor to give them access to basic amenities and affordable housing. It will extend support to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum-dwellers/urban poor. The preparatory phase of Rajiv Awas Yojana has commenced. About Rs. 90 crore have been released to States/Union territories for slum-free city planning to enable them to undertake slum survey and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of slums and to prepare slum-free city/state plans. Public-Private Partnership initiatives 67 projects, having Public-Private Partnership (PPP) components, have been approved under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance component of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Culture

The 150th birth anniversaries of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda are being celebrated. National Committees under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister have been set up. A significant feature of the 150th anniversary of Tagore is the joint celebration with Bangladesh. A National Committee has also been set up to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. A new Tagore Research Fellowship Scheme has been launched to persuade academics, researchers and scholars to devote up to two years of time working with major cultural institutions of the Ministry. 13 national Tagore Fellows have been selected so far. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts organized 12 major cultural events attracting around five lakh visitors, which is an all time record. The Sangeet Natak Akademi has increased the number of Fellowship Awards from 30 to 40 and the amount has been raised from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh. UNESCO has declared three more living traditions of India as shining examples of world’s intangible cultural heritage. These are ‘Mudiyettu’ sacred ritual theatre of Kerala, the ‘Kalbelia’ folk song and dance of Rajasthan and the ‘Chhau’ folk dance of eastern India. A new Central Institute for Himalayan Cultural Studies has been approved at Dahng in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.