Current budget for North East states of around Rs 50,000 crore significantly higher than previous years: Centre

Current budget for North East states is around Rs 50,000 crore which is significantly higher than that in earlier years, the government said. In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Jitendra Singh said current budget for Northeast for 2017-18 is around Rs 50,000 crore.

“The 10 per cent contribution from budget of the each of the 56 non-exempted Union Ministries earmarked for Northeast, amounts in total to over Rs 43,000 crore which was earlier around Rs 33,000 crore,” he said.

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In addition, the Minister said, the Railway budget for Northeast is to the tune of Rs 5,500 crore, the budget for special roads scheme for Northeast is Rs 150 crore and the budget for BTC, KAATC and DHATC amounts to about 120 crore. The DoNER Ministry budget, per se, for 2017-18 is also increased up to Rs 279.45 crore, he added.