Northeast India the part of India from where Deepa Karmakar and Mary Kom came out as an inspiration to women of India. It is the same venue the patriot journalist who is nightmare to most of anti nationals Arnab Goswami hails from. And also Dr Manmohan Singh former Prime Minister of India was Rajya Sabha MP from Assam which is the state in the same North East.
For the previous governments Assam was the metaphor for or first picture which came out when they thought of North East. As a Prime Minister being MP of that region it ought to be a developed region. But it is not actually so which is an irony, it was the same region which was kept out of mainstream since many years or since 76 years of Indian independence. Nobody who is the native of this region became minister in the union government or we may say not let to be.
The first step towards the development of North East India was taken by the then Vajpayee government in 2001, when a separate ministry for North East development was formed after 54 years of independence it is nothing but pathetic. But after 3 years a new government was formed and the same ministry was put aside or sidelined despite the Prime Minister was an MP from this region. Presently Jitendra Singh is the Minister of North East development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave much significance to the development of Northeast India. Lack of infrastructure and problem of immigrants were the main problems faced by them. Sarbananda Sonowal who was a Minister of sports in government of India was made chief
minister of Assam, after this stage began Vikas Parv of northeast.
North East was under developed not because of lack of potential but because of lack of political will power. Modi government has converted Northeast into connectivity hub. ASEAN and Northeast India’s connection was strengthened via trade culture and people to people relations. Through inland waterways and India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highways the fuel cost and time involved in trade and tourism was cut down which boosted the economy of Northeast Indians.
Northeast Indians are popular for handicrafts and handlooms, to promote textiles first ever northeast investors summit on textiles was held in Shillong. To market the textiles ‘India Handmade Baazar’, an online portal was launched to provide direct access to handlooms and artisans. ‘Northeast Region Textile Promotion Scheme’ was initiated to promote employment and entrepreneurship among women, each center provides employment for nearly 1000 people.
Initiative is taken to put North East in the rail map of India. Foundation stone was laid for Imphal railway station in 2016. Longest railway tunnel in India is coming up on Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal new broad guage line and Agartala is connected with it. Over all 15 projects are in progress. Thus connectivity distance between important cities of Northeast is shortened.
Northeast road sector development scheme was launched set upgradation of neglected but important interstate roads. About 30,000 crores invested on North East for development of
national highway under Bharatmala project.
Comprehensive Scheme for Power Transmission and Distribution Systems for NE approved at 9,865 crores. 16 hydro power projects are in progress to produce 5576 MW of electricity. About 2450 kilometers of power transmission and distribution lines are laid in Northeast. Over all projects of worth Rs.10000 crores of electricity transmission and distribution are in progress.
North East India has great potential in terms of tourism,Rs.207 crores sanctioned to prevent erosion in Majuli Island, which is largest riverine island that attracts tourists.’ Destination Northeast’ organized every year to showcase opportunity for business and tourism. Development of Lakeview in Meghalaya, development of spiritual circuit in Manipur, development of tourist circuit in Sikkim, development of tribal circuit in Nagaland etc are a part of Swadesh Darshan scheme.
Guwahati airport is developed into an inter regional hub . North East is priority under UDAN, 92 new routes are going to be started and about 19 under served airports are getting air
service.
Another problem which was disturbing Northeast is that of immigrants, about 44 lakhs illegal immigrants are marked under NRC who are either Bangladeshi immigrants or Rohingyas are going to be evacuated.Fake human rights activists are hurdling it, it’s secondary.
Modi ji converted apathy into empathy of North East.Previous governments were following Look East but Modi ji made it Act East. Modi ji giving wings to aspirations of people of North East, and opposition is gambling with feelings of people of North East by insulting traditional head gear of tribals which is nothing but ironical.
