Five of the eight Northeast states declared to be coronavirus free while the other three have not reported any fresh positive cases in the last few days, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region, Jitendra Singh told.

Minister had a review meeting through a video conference with senior officers from North Eastern Council (NEC) Shillong as well as representatives of different government bodies and PSUs.

According to a press note, the meeting was attended by representatives of different government bodies and PSUs including North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMC), North East Handicraft & Handloom Development Corporation (NEHHDC), North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi), Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) among others.

“In the last six years, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Northeast has emerged as a model of developmental transformation, in the wake of the present COVID crisis, it has emerged as a model of effective, diligent and disciplined health management,” Jitendra Singh said while addressing media.

“5 North Eastern States of Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura are totally Corona free, while 3 other states of Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram had 8, 11 and 1 Corona positive cases respectively, which are waiting to become negative, while no new cases were added till last night,” he said.

Jitendra Singh also informed about the proposals received and under consideration from the different North Eastern States like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur for new health-related projects devoted to the management of infections and Corona care, critical care and upgraded healthcare.

These projects will be dealt with priority, he said.

In addition, he informed that the Ministry of DoNER had placed Rs 25 crore at the disposal of North Eastern States in the initial stage itself, much before the lockdown, as gap-funding for corona related activities.

During the meeting, Singh also received an update about various economic activities in the recent days in the exempted areas, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, which primarily included the Bamboo related activities.