North Eastern Council

Current Affair 1:

North Eastern Council

News:

The NEC is not a constitutional body. It is a statutory body created by the Parliament under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971.

The headquarters of the council is situated in Shillong and functions under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) of the Government of India.

Composition:

1. The Chairman: The Union Home Minister serves as the ex-officio Chairman of the Council.
2. The Vice-Chairman: The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of DoNER acts as the Vice-Chairman.
3. Members: It includes the Governors and Chief Ministers of all the eight-member states. Three more members are nominated directly by the President of India.

Evolution of Member States:

1. The Original Seven (1971): When created, the council looked after the "Seven Sisters": Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
2. The 2002 Amendment: In 2002, the Parliament amended the NEC Act to officially add Sikkim as the eighth member state. This amendment also shifted the NEC's role from a purely advisory body to a regional planning body.

 

Functions of the NEC Council:

How NEC is different from zonal councils?

While the standard Zonal Councils (Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central) were created under the State Reorganisation Act, 1956 and function under the Ministry of Home Affairs, the NEC was created by its own separate Act to focus exclusively on the northeast.

 

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