NITI forum for northeast to meet on Tuesday (Lead)

New Delhi April 9 (IANS) The government is set to launch NITI forum a special body set up to achieve accelerated inclusive and sustainable growth in the eight states of northeast region on Tuesday in Agartala where its first meeting will be held.

Addressing a press conference here NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the forum will have Chief Ministers from these states and Union Secretaries among others and it will supplement the work being done by North East Council and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

"NITI Aayog will have a role in providing analytical content and further in finding constraints in the implementation.

"There are number of initiatives that have to be continuously monitored -- on agriculture water resources tourism road connectivity civil aviation. Like we want all state capitals be connected by four-lane highways " he said.

In the same press conference DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh said the government had already taken several initiatives in the region and NITI forum will "help in providing advantage of having more institutionalised and more streamlined mechanism to function".

Kumar said he has planned to visit every state and talk about their agenda in the respective capitals to "discuss the issues among ground realities".

--IANS
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