STATE TIMES NEWS
GUWAHATI: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh said here on Saturday that Northeast is destined to play a leading role in Post-COVID India and in the times to come the entire country will look up to the North Eastern Region for avenues of business entrepreneurship, Start-Up initiatives by youth and livelihood opportunities.
Speaking to the media soon after his arrival here on a two-day visit to Assam and Manipur, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that Northeast has in recent years distinguished itself as a development model for the rest of India and living up to the same reputation, also distinguished itself as a COVID management model for the rest of the country. He profusely appreciated the North Eastern States for taking disciplined, timely and effective measures against COVID pandemic which has enabled even the impartial agencies to rate the North Eastern States as among the best COVID managed States.
Ever since Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister, it was his clear instructions that we have to raise the North Eastern States at par with the more developed States and regions of the country, Dr. Jitendra said. In the last seven years, he said, a structured institutionalization of various sectors was possible because of the high priority given by the Prime Minister and the same reflected in the form of instant preparedness to meet the sudden challenge posed by COVID pandemic.
The pace of development has been on such a fast track, said Dr. Singh, that when this government came in 2014, there were at least three North Eastern States which had never seen a train. Today, there is a broad gauge rail track being built across the entire North Eastern region and they are going to have its first train to Bangladesh, which will take off from Agartala in Tripura.
It is an instance of negligence, said Dr. Jitendra Singh that the most peripheral State of Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh, which is also strategically important because of its border with China, did not have an Airport for the last seventy years, but soon we are going to have an airport at Itanagar. Similarly, the most visited tourist destination of Sikkim did not have an airport of its own and the first airport at Pakyong, Sikkim was dedicated to the public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two years ago, he said.
A network of roads is being laid across the North Eastern region and inland waterways are being developed, said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Meanwhile, Advisor North Eastern Council, Air Marshal(Retd) Anjan Kumar Gogoi called on Dr. Jitendra Singh this evening and briefed him about the status of various projects undertaken in different States of the region. He also gave an account of the various measures taken for the control of COVID pandemic in the last six months.