DoNER minister Jitendra Singh at the review meeting. Image: Northeast Now

Going ahead with its ‘Promote Northeast’ police, the DoNER Ministry so far have utilized 93 per cent of its fund in different projects across the region in the current financial year.

This was disclosed in a review meeting of DoNER ministry chaired by Jitendra Singh.

“It’s a moment for happiness that for the first time in many years, nearly 93 per cent budget of the Ministry of DoNER has been spent for the current financial year till date,” Singh said.

He also asked the officials to achieve 100 per cent target till the end of this fiscal.

Earlier, about 75 to 80 per cent of the budget used to get spent in the whole year.

The DoNER minister asked the officials to sign an MoU at the earliest with the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the opening of new bamboo clusters and technology centres, especially in Jammu, Samba and Kathua region.

The MoU will provide technical support and help in capacity building of farmers.

He said the region has great potential for bamboo entrepreneurship.

The minister was informed that the construction work for a new hostel for students of Northeast in JNU is going on in full swing.

The project undertaken by NEC under the Ministry of DoNER will be of great help to the students of the North-Eastern Region, he added.

Similarly, for the first-ever North East Convention Centre at Dwarka at a prime land, work is going to start shortly.

It was brought to the notice of the Minister that against a total package amount of Rs 586.20 crore under Social and Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF), projects worth of Rs 587.17 crore has been sanctioned by the DoNER ministry.

Out of this, an amount of Rs 504.10 crore has already been released and the balance amount will be released on receipt of physical & financial reports from the concerned State Governments.

A total of 212 projects costing Rs 3512.45 crore have been implemented by the Ministry in the North Eastern Region so far.