Kolkata Sep 28 PTI Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said the Centre has almost doubled the budgetary allocation for development of the northeastern states in the last seven years with around Rs 68000 crore having being allotted in the current fiscal Reddy the minister for development of north eastern region DoNER said the Centre is giving a push for development of agriculture in the region to attract investments in the sector and the NE states will play a crucial role to increase the output of edible oils The budgetary allocation for development of northeastern states is around Rs 68000 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal compared to about Rs 60000 crore in FY21 The Centre has nearly doubled the allocation in the last seven years to the region as Rs 36000 crore was given in 2014-15 he said addressing a virtual programme- East India Summit - organised by CII Reddy said the NE states will play a crucial role to increase the output of edible oil It will contribute 50 per cent of the targeted additional area of 65 lakh hectares for oil palm cultivation under a centrally sponsored scheme to boost domestic production of edible oils Under the National Mission on Edible Oils Oil Palm NMEO-OP it has been proposed to cover an additional area of 65 lakh hectare for oil palm till 2025-26 and thereby reach the target of 10 lakh hectares The contribution of the northeastern states will be 50 per cent in the mission as the area under oil palm cultivation will go up to 34 lakh hectare in the region from the existing 40000 hectare Reddy said As a result of bringing in more area under cultivation the production of crude palm oil is expected to go up to 1120 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30 he said The Centre has been focusing on infrastructure development of the region including improvement of rail road and air connectivity the DoNER minister said NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said the east and the northeast region covers one fifth of the countrys geographical area but its contribution has been far less than one-fifth of the countrys GDP The primary reason for the constrained growth of the east and NE region despite its strategic advantages in terms of location and natural resources can largely be attributed to insufficient infrastructure he said To unlock the potential of the entire region the foremost requirement is to address the concerns of inadequate infrastructure lack of connectivity and institutional support to improve competitiveness he said It is encouraging that in 2019-20 when the entire country witnessed a slowdown due to COVID-19 Mizoram achieved a 13 per cent growth rate followed by Tripura at 9 per cent the official of the policy think tank said PTI BDC KK KK KK