GUWAHATI, March 23 - Opposition Congress today termed the newly announced North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS) a �great disappointment� and added that the new policy will not help develop the industrial scenario of the region.
�NEIDS is a great disappointment for the northeastern region. It has minimum scope for the region to thrive in investment, production and job creation. It has completely ignored the services sector, unlike the earlier NEIIPP. NEIDS has turned out to be a retrospective lollipop devoid of any healthy nutrient for the growth of our region,� Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) vice president Pradyut Bordoloi said at a press conference here.
�After the suspension of the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP) in 2014, the BJP governments, both at Delhi and Dispur, kept promising the people of the North-east that they would come back with a better substitute policy. And finally after an inordinate delay, a substitute has been provided, which is merely a scheme for four years that drastically scaled down all incentives given earlier under NEIIPP,� Bordoloi said.
He said the NEIIPP 2007 not only proved to be an economic multiplier for the region but it was instrumental in attracting investments of nearly Rs 26,800 crore in Assam alone, between 2007 and 2015. �Much of these NEIIPP-induced investments in Assam have now been claimed by the present BJP government as its own achievement,� said the Congress leader.
�Making fake promises to the people has been the hallmark of the Modi government. After the Modi government was installed in Delhi, it removed the Special Category Status accorded to the North-east and stopped all special assistance programmes piloted earlier by the Planning Commission. They curtailed all ongoing developmental schemes and stopped financial disbursements against these schemes for the region,� he added.
