By IANS
Agartala : The central government will finalise the Vision 2020 document next month to help prepare a road map for development of the northeast, officials said Thursday.
The North Eastern Council (NEC), a regional planning body for the northeast, had entrusted the task of preparing a draft Vision 2020 document to the New Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
“The draft will be submitted for consideration in the two-day plenary meeting of the NEC on Dec 10 in New Delhi,” said M. Govinda Rao, the director of NIPFP.
Vision 2020, as the name implies, will have a time frame covering the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans and the first three years of the 13th Plan.
The major thrust sectors detailed in the draft are connectivity (road, rail, air, inland waterways and telecommunication), agriculture and allied sectors, power health, education and tourism.
“Participatory development is seen as the key to inclusive growth,” Rao, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister, told IANS.
“Now separatist outfits are mobilising much more money than the revenue generated by the state governments of the northeastern region,” he added.
According to the draft document, the objective was to ensure that people receive adequate food, clothing, and shelter, and that every family is free from hunger, leads a healthy life and participates productively in the growth process.
“An important component of Vision 2020 is to achieve a high level of human development, particularly education and health,” said Rao.
He has led public hearings in all the states during the past few months to gather the opinion of locals, experts and government institutions on the draft document.
The document is based on surveys conducted by the NEC, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), interactions with the stakeholders, and contributions by the Planning Commission’s steering committees, besides NIPFP’s own research.