Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that his government during its eight-year tenure has removed all obstacles that came in the way of development of the North East region.
Addressing a public meeting on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the North East Council (NEC, he also said that improved air connectivity provided to the region has been helping export of agricultural produce, benefiting farmers.
“Be it corruption, discrimination, nepotism, violence or vote-bank politics to disrupt the development in the region, we are working with dedication and honesty to uproot all these evils”, he remarked.
The Prime Minister pointed out that even though such evils are deeply rooted, we have to work towards eliminating each one of them. He further added that the efforts of the government are showing positive results.
Throwing light on the emphasis on sports development, the Prime Minister highlighted that the central government is moving forward with a new approach and its benefits can be clearly seen in the North Eastern regions as well.
He informed that apart from India’s first sports university, the North Eastern region is well equipped with multiple infrastructures like multipurpose hall, football field and athletics track. He further added that work is underway on ninety such projects.
He informed that the central government is spending Rs 7 lakh crore only on infrastructure this year, while 8 years ago this expenditure was less than Rs 2 lakh crore. He also pointed out that states are competing within themselves when it comes to boosting infrastructure.
Giving examples of infrastructural developments in the North East, Modi highlighted the fast-paced work to connect all the capitals of the North East including Shillong with rail service and the increase in number of weekly flights from 900 before 2014 to 1900 today. He informed that under the UDAN scheme, flights are on 16 routes in Meghalaya and the result is cheap airfares for the people of Meghalaya.
The Prime Minister drew everyone’s attention to the connectivity projects that have been inaugurated today and informed that 5 thousand crore rupees have been spent on the construction of the National Highway in Meghalaya in the last 8 years while the number of rural roads built in the last 8 years under the Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana in Meghalaya is seven times more than what was built in the previous 20 years.
Talking about the increasing digital connectivity for the youth of the Northeast, the Prime Minister informed that optical fibre coverage has increased 4 times in the Northeast and 5 times in Meghalaya when compared to 2014. He further added that 6 thousand mobile towers are being erected to take mobile connectivity to every part of the region with an outlay of 5 thousand crores.
