In Shillong, PM Modi inaugurated, dedicated, and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects worth over Rs 2450 crores besides attending a golden jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated various development projects during the golden jubilee celebrations of the North Eastern Council, in Shillong.
“When football fever is gripping us all, why not talk in football terminology? When someone goes against the sportsman spirit, they’re shown a red card and sent out. In the last 8 years, we’ve shown a red card to several hurdles in the development of the northeast,” PM Modi said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
The Prime Minister further said, “We are making honest efforts to send out corruption, bias, nepotism, violence, stalling of projects, and vote bank politics. But you know that the roots of these diseases run deep. So, we all have to uproot it together.”
Earlier, attempts were made to divide Northeast, we are removing these divisions, he stated.
In Shillong, the Prime Minister inaugurated, dedicated, and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects worth over Rs 2450 crores besides attending a golden jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council.
“When we changed the priorities of the Central government, its positive impact is visible across the country. This year, the Centre is spending Rs 7 Lakh crore just for infrastructure. 8 yrs back, this was less than even Rs 2 Lakh crore. 7 decades after independence, we reached only up to Rs 2 Lakh crore,” PM Modi mentioned, as quoted by ANI.
He remarked that political parties that had governments for a long time, had the mindset of ‘divide’ for Northeast. “We’ve come with the mindset of ‘divine’. Be it different communities or regions — we are removing all divisions. Not borders of disputes, we are building corridors of development in the Northeast,” he added.
“In the last 8 years, several outfits left the path of violence and followed the path of peace. In coordination with the state governments, the situation is being continuously improved to see that there is no need for AFSPA in the northeast,” he further said.
The Prime Minister emphasised that decade-long border disputes between states are being resolved. “For us, the North East Border Area is not the endpoint, but a gateway to security and prosperity. Therefore, today the work of building new roads, new tunnels, new bridges, new rail lines, new airstrips is going on at a fast pace on the border,” he added.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers of the northeastern states, and others participated in the celebrations.
PM Modi, on the occasion, released ‘Golden Footprints’, a commemorative volume chronicling NEC’s contribution towards the development of the northeast over the last 50 years, according to an official statement.
A short film on NEC’s journey of 50 years was also screened on the occasion, the statement said.
Apart from the PM, Shah and G Kishan Reddy, the Union minister for culture, tourism and development of north-eastern region (DoNER), addressed the session.
The PM, who is also set to visit Tripura later in the day, will be inaugurating and laying foundation stones of projects worth more than Rs 6,800 crore in the two northeastern states during the day.
Both states are heading for assembly polls, which are likely to be held in February.
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