AGARTALA, Nov 15 (TIWN): Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal on Monday instructed the North Eastern Council (NEC) officials to focus on Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to connect the eight northeastern states digitally. The Union minister asked the council, which is the regional planning body, to focus on tourism activities besides infrastructural development. "OFC connectivity should reach Panchayat level so that Direct Benefit Transfer to the common public will be a reality," he said.Meghwal assured the council that the government will provide more funds to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and NEC by requesting supplementary funds in the upcoming winter session of Parliament. He said that the NEC was proposing around Rs 2,000 crore for the next budget. "I am assuring you that the NEC will get proper budget as per the demand," he said.On the other hand Tripura CM Manik Sarkar has demanded fund allocation to all the northeastern states in a ratio of 90:10 for implementation of the smart city mission in the region and also more funds for NE development.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu recently has declared that central govt has focused on to draw more investors, so that Indian Railway Dept can expect the ‘Regulator to be set up’ in Tripura.

However, recently  Rail Development Authority (RDA) disclosed that large amounts of momentary resources are being earmarked for funding developmental projects in NER. The Present Govt has allocated a total of INR53,706 (USD8.9 billion) for the FY 2014-2015 for the largely underdeveloped regions of North-east India. RDA also disclosed that the total investment for NE is more than the loan taken by India from banks.