Shillong, January 06 2010: Union Mminister of State (MoS) for Rural Development Agatha K Sangma on Wednesday announced that a special meeting of all the rural development ministers from North East region will be convened at New Delhi in February to be headed by Union Minister for Rural Development C P Joshi to chalk out North East specific development initiatives.

India's youngest Parliamentarian Agatha K Sangma in her visit today to her home constituency in Tura, Meghalaya to attend a felicitation programme at a remote village in Garo Hills announced her initiatives to be taken up for improving the overall development scenario of the region.

She said, "Ten per cent of the development funds from Rural Development department are meant for North East region".

She further said that a meeting of all the state rural development ministers will be held in New Delhi this February.

Commenting on the unsatisfactory performance of the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Union Minister said, "We are ensuring that monitoring is accorded a top most priority and a third party monitoring by independent bodies is also done to ensure effective implementation".

Sangma also said, "Respective state government in the North East region is being pushed forward to ensure that the scheme is implemented in its true spirit".

She also informed that the pending issues of uniform wage is also being taken up by the finance department and in every likelihood all the North Eastern states will soon receive uniform wage of Rs.100 daily.

The poor road condition is a major concern for all the states in North East, with Sangma assuring that PMGSY is being given a special attention with her personally initiative to see that road construction is done not just based on density of population but also on the line of improving the economic condition of the people.

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