Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh, attended a meeting among others by Shri Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs and senior officers of the Ministry of DoNER to finalize the roster for the tour of various Ministers to the North-East. Eight Union Ministers will tour North-East every fortnight, including Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State with Independent Charge and Ministers of State.

These tour programmes, Dr Jitendra Singh said, had been planned on the directions of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi who is keen for a special focus on Northeast. During these tours, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the visiting Minister will take a review of the works related to his/her Department and also participate in important events taking place in the region.

At today’s meeting, it was also decided that in order to ensure maximum utility of the tour by Union Ministers, on the one hand the North Eastern Council (NEC) with its headquarters at Shillong will coordinate, on the other hand, the DoNER Ministry will also fix responsibility of its officers stationed at Guwahati to maintain liaison with the visiting Ministers since Guwahati is the first airport at which dignitaries are expected to land for undertaking further tours in the region.

Dr. Jitendra Singh further informed that during the first fortnight from 1st to 15th January, among others, Shri Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (I/C) for Commerce, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs & Sports and Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs undertook tour of the States of Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Nagaland. In the second fortnight of January, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Mines and Steel, Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Ram Kripal Yadav, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation and Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Minister of State for Agriculture are likely to undertake similar tours to eight Northeast States.

Dr Jitendra Singh stated that Shri Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Sushri Uma Bharati, Minister of Water Resources, Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and Dr. Najma Heptulla, Minister of Minority Affairs will be requested to undertake similar tours during the first fortnight of next month. Among the Ministers of States with Independent Charge and Ministers of States, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (I/C) for Planning, Shri Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways and Shri P. Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping are also being requested to undertake tours during the month of February.

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that he himself will be travelling to one of the eight Northeast States at least once in a month.