The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Lok Sabha today that Government of India has taken several measures to support the North Eastern State Governments, including Assam during the pandemic. As part of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package, funds have been released to aid and enable the States to ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs and other supplies. The packages like Special and Comprehensive packages, Atmanirbhar package, and relief measures under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, relief measures for MSMEs and NBFCs, increased allocation under MGNREGS, interest subvention for MUDRA loans and revamp of Viability Gap Funding scheme for social infrastructure, etc. will benefit all the North Eastern States, including Assam.
Further, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region under its North East Special Infrastructure Development (NESID) Scheme has sanctioned five projects costing Rs.193.32 crore for Strengthening Health Infrastructure for fighting COVID 19 in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. This includes sanction of Rs. 97.48 crore to Assam. So far, an amount of Rs.77.33 crore has been released to the State Governments for implementation of these projects, including Rs. 38.99 crore to Assam. An amount of Rs.25.29 crore has also been released to all the NE States, including Assam by the North Eastern Council (NEC) to assist in combating the pandemic COVID-19 and as well as to provide relief to the stranded youths/people of NER during the time of lockdown. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also released an amount of Rs. 303.40 crore to North Eastern States, including Rs. 191.83 crore to Assam for various activities under the Health Sector including for measures to fight corona pandemic.