Guwahati, June 05: The Centre has so far sanctioned a total of Rs 5268 crore for the 29 schemes announced by the Prime Minister for socio-economic development of the North Eastern region. Announcing this at a press conference here, Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) minister, Dr C P Thakur said this amount was against the Rs 11957 crore sanctioned by the Centre for all the 28 schemes having a overall cost of Rs 13411 crore.

Commenting on the low percentage of grant against the sanctioned amount, the minister said partly it was due to non-availability of utilisation certificates and also because of the peculiar weather condition and law and order situation in the region.

The minister, who reviewed the progress of the 28 schemes, announced by the Prime Minister in Shillong in 2000, expressed satisfaction over the progress and said there was a need to fast track development in the region.

Of the 28 programmes in the PM's agenda, seven has been completed while 17 others were under implementation.

Thakur announced that a super-specialty hospital with high quality medical care would be set up while a nursing college could possibly come up even earlier.

Bureau Report