IMPHAL: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Modi government had successfully transformed the Northeast within three years and retrieved the region from several decades of continuous neglect, so that it could grow at par with the other States of India.
Addressing a public programme to highlight the achievements of three years of the Modi Government at BJP Headquarters here, Singh said, not only the development of Northeast region was put on fast-track, but also effective and visible steps taken to bridge the physical and psychological gap between Northeast and the rest of India. He said, each of the eight North Eastern States today can rightfully claim to be progressing and growing like any other State of India and this itself is a huge physical as well as psychological redemption of what was left undone or half-done in the past.
The programme, attended among others by Chief Minister Manipur N.Biren Singh, BJP State President and Rajya Sabha MP Bhabanand Singh, State Ministers as well as BJP MLAs, also assumed significance for being the first important programme by BJP after the party formed its first – ever government in the State, three months ago.
Singh said, the extent of priority extended by the Modi Government to Northeast is borne out by the fact that in the last three years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made nearly a dozen visits to the Northeast region and he chose the venue of Guwahati in Assam to address the public rally to commemorate the three years of his government on 26th of May.
Statistically also, Singh said, the budget for Northeast received a hike of over 25 per cent in these three years. While over Rs.40,000 crore has been earmarked for road development, he said, a special road corporation namely “Northeast Road Development Scheme” was launched to take care of the neglected and orphan roads of the region.