Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Amit Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always tried to reduce the distance between Delhi and the North East and change the mindset and develop the whole of the North East, and, that is why he has resolved to develop the eight States of the region by giving them the name of Ashtalakshmi.
Addressing Tripura’s 50th Statehood Day celebrations through video conferencing, he deplored that once upon a time, the North East was known for corruption, but today there are NEDA governments in all eight states and money sent from Delhi to these eight states is spent on development.
He said many development works have taken place in Tripura. Work is also on to develop Tripura as a gateway to the North East. There will be a lot of investment in Tripura in the coming days due to the dozens of road and rail projects and international waterway connectivity with Bangladesh. The work of Agartala-Akhaura rail link is also progressing at a rapid pace.
The Tripura government has made great efforts to bring peace and stability. Today, instead of extremism, infiltration, blockades, drugs, arms trafficking, corruption and communal tension, Tripura is now moving towards development, connectivity, infrastructure, sports, investment, and promotion of organic farming.
Amit Shah said that the Centre and Government of Tripura have done a wonderful job by signing an accord with the NLFT in 2019, ending an atmosphere of unrest. A package of Rs. 100 crore was given and Rs. 40 crore have already been released to Tripura. Even in the Bru Agreement, the Government of India has given a large package to solve the 30-year-old problem of about 37,000 people and Bru refugees are ready to join the mainstream and contribute to the development of India and Tripura.
Amit Shah accused that the Communist regime left no stone unturned to make Tripura a backward state, and violence against its rivals remained the politics of the Communists. Governments were never run from the point of view of development and an important state like Tripura was deprived of development for two decades.
But our government came to power in Tripura with a full majority keeping faith in Modi and today Tripura is moving on the path of development. In these two decades, more than 450 workers of our party were attacked, many people lost their lives, and remained destitute in their own State, in their own country as refugees, he added.
But today all these efforts have begun yielding results and Tripura has started moving on the path of development. After the formation of the government in Tripura, the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb launched a drug-free Tripura campaign and took strict action on drug smuggling that was taking place with support of the previous State government. Tripura is no longer a safe haven for drug smugglers.
Due to the campaign by Biplab Kumar Deb, Amit Shah said that not only the youth of Tripura have become free from drugs, but the biggest route of drugs has been closed across the country and tribal society has been the biggest beneficiary of this drug de-addiction campaign.
