North Eastern Council (NEC)

Why in news?

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently chaired the 69th plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Shillong, Meghalaya,

About the council

• The North Eastern Council is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region.
• It consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
• NEC was established through an Act of Parliament and hence a statutory body.

Members and Chairman

• The NEC comprises of Governors and Chief Ministers of all the eight north-eastern states as its members; along with three Members nominated by the President.
• The President will nominate the Chairman of the Council and he need not be nominated from amongst the other Members.
• As of now Home minister is the ex-officio chairman of the NEC.
• Union Minister of development of north-eastern region (DoNER) would serve as vice chairman of the council.

Mandates

• NEC was established under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971 as an apex level body for securing balanced and coordinated development and facilitating coordination with the States.
• Subsequent to the Amendment in North Eastern Council Act in 2002:
  • NEC has been mandated to function as a regional planning body for the North Eastern Area.
  • And while formulating a regional plan for this area, shall give priority to the schemes and projects benefiting two or more states.

Activities:

• Implements various projects through the State and Central agencies.
• Review the implementation of the projects/schemes.
• Recommend effective measures for coordination among the state Governments etc.

Powers

• The Council shall have such powers as may be delegated to it by the Central Government.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements:
1.Zonal councils are Statutory bodies.
2.All zonal councils were established by State reorganisation act,1956.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to Prelims Question