STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal interest and intervention to boost development in peripheral regions like Northeast, is borne out by the fact that he is the first Prime Minister after a gap of 40 years to have traveled to Shillong in Meghalaya to personally attend the Plenary Meet of the North Eastern Council (NEC). Pertinent to mention, the last such meet was attended by Prime Minister Morarji Desai.
In reply to a series of supplementary questions by members from Congress, JDU and other parties, Dr Jitendra Singh observed, he never says that the earlier governments in the past had not done anything, but, at the same time, he has no hesitation to state at the risk of sounding self-praise, that when this government came in the year 2014, there were at least two States in the Northeast, namely Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, where people had never seen a train, while today, not only both these States are on the rail map of India, but the work is in progress to lay down a double-gauge rail track in the entire North-Eastern region within the next two years.
Dr Jitendra Singh informed that in a bid to connect all the eight North-Eastern State capitals with a rail link, the three capitals of Guwahati, Itanagar and Agartala already stand linked. The work to link Imphal and Aizawl through a double-gauge rail track is in progress and is expected to be complete around 2020, he said. The work on rail track to Kohima in Nagaland may however, take some time, he added. About Shillong, he said, that due to certain local protest and local factors, the work had to be stalled, but effort is on and, as soon as it gets resolved, the work to establish a rail-link will be resumed. As for Gangtok, he said,the rail link is planned to be established up to Rangpo and a forest clearance is awaited.
An annual budget of over Rs. 5,606 crores has been earmarked this year for the construction of roads in the region, while for rail, the budget is over Rs. 5,265 crores for Northeast, he informed.
When asked about the Northeast Industrial Promotion Policy (NIPP), Dr Jitendra Singh said, the same is under consideration and to promote entrepreneurship in the region, the Ministry of Northeast / DoNER has introduced “Venture Capital Fund” for any young Start-up who wishes to try his luck in the region.
Similarly, Dr Jitendra Singh said, from the state of neglect, the present government has placed Northeast on high priority and this is evident from the fact that the important city of Shillong, which was the capital of erstwhile State of Assam, did not have a proper airport and the work has now started to upgrade it.
