The strength of the North Eastern Council lay in the fact that it was able to take up various issues, mostly developmental, to find appropriate, locally feasible solutions and frame schemes for translating them into concrete action.

Based on my experience as Governor of Assam and Meghalaya and Chairman of the Council from 1984 to 1989, I can say that the NEC holds meetings at regular intervals to formulate a regional plan in regard to matters of common importance to the region and review the progress of implementation of the schemes. It also effects coordination among the governments of constituent units.

The Chairman enjoys wide powers in this regard.The NEC's regional plans are examined and finalised by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Chairman of the Council, ensuring flow of additional Plan funds from the Centre to the region. In the context of the North Eastern areas, the commonality of interests extends to critical spheres of planning for power generation, flood control, inter-state transport and communication as rightly stressed in the NEC Act. The annual outlay of Rs 28 lakh in the first year has now risen to over Rs 350 crore.

The Council is a novel institution which is the product of intensive thinking and wide consultations and discussions. As then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had said while inaugurating the Council, ``The NEC represents a promising innovation in regional planning.'' When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he took keen interest in its functioning. The financial powers of the NEC's Secretary was enhanced to accord sanction of schemes costing up to Rs 5 crore. At the instance of Gandhi, the Cabinet Secretary chaired a meeting of the chief secretaries of the region on May 16, 1987, to evolve a strategy for the integrated planning for the North East and the role of the NEC in the process.

Gradually with the states having separate governors, both governors and chief ministers of the states became members of the Council leading to a slightly odd situation. It was then decided that one of the governors would become Chairman on a rotational basis. This led to the situation of the Governor being away from the headquarters of the Council Secretariat. This weakened the process of supervision as well as resulted in a flagging of interest in the NEC's work on the part of the Chairman.

It is noticeable that the NEC worked quite well (after the initial period when Nagaland was not associating itself with the council) when there was a common governor as the Chairman. Even when there was more than one governor in the region and the Governor of Assam and Meghalaya was the Chairman on a permanent basis, the functioning of the Council was reasonably good; but with shifting Chairman, the NEC's functioning received a setback due to inadequate possibilities for interaction at the political level and diminishing opportunity for supervision and monitoring. On the face of it, the Council appears to be a body for only regional planning but, in fact, it is not so. The region does not suffer only from the backlog of development initiative. Its underdevelopment is the result of socio-political and socio-legal factors, an inward-looking ethos that is prevalent in the area, a lack of managerial and entrepreneurial skills in the region, the underlying security scenario and inter-state tensions generated by problems of inter-state boundary disputes and ethnic heterogeneity. Even framing of developmental plans requires sensitive understanding and delicate handling. It is necessary for the Chairman to have frequent interaction with the chief ministers and senior officials of the States and Union Territories.

The present solution of restructuring the Council with the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, as the Chairman, is not going to change things for the better. If anything, it could accentuate the problem.

One gets the feeling that this formulation has been arrived at more due to a lack of a better alternative than its intrinsic merit. Even earlier, redesigning of the Council had been discussed and both the suggestions of either the Union Home Minister or the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, becoming the Chairman were not found acceptable.

It was recognised that an integrated and coordinated view of the entire region has to be evolved on any issue of serious concern to the region and for this purpose the Council Secretariat needs to have intense interaction with the prominent personalities of the region, a better understanding of the ethos of the people of the area and better exposure and sensitivity towards various susceptibilities of the region. There is another reason why the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, should not be the Chairman of the Council. The Planning Commission looks after the problems of the whole country. The Deputy Chairman getting intimately involved in the planning process of a state or a region may convey signals which may not be totally judicious. Moreover, the annual and periodical Plans of the Council are approved by the Planning Commission. There is a discussion between the Chairman of the NEC and the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, to give a final shape to the annual Plan or periodical Plan. There is a third possibility. The Prime Minister could be made the Chairman of the Council with the local Governor at Headquarters of the Council being either the working chairman or the Vice-Chairman (office of the Vice-Chairman is provided for in the existing Act). This will meet both the requirements to revitalise the Council and continue a closer interaction of the Council Secretariat with the constituent units at the political level. The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, may also be a member of the Council to strengthen it.

The situation in the North East is overshadowed to some extent by the security scenario whether we like it or not. The developmental efforts need to be closely interlinked with security requirements. The Council Act itself, therefore, has recognised this factor. It was also the dominant reason why the Home Ministry was given the responsibility of handling this subject. The ground situation has not changed. It may not, therefore, be right or advisable to eliminate this factor from the Act or to change the administrative ministry. The Home Ministry moreover deals with Centre-State relations and relations among the States. It appears that the proposal for restructuring the Council needs further detailed examination and consultation keeping in view the basic goal and the interests of the people of the North East.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.