NEW DELHI, Jul 20: Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Monday that the Modi government is reaching out to the remotest areas of the Northeast and doing its best to fulfil the aspirations of the region.
Inaugurating a mega food park in Mizoram through video conference, Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accorded highest priority to the Northeastern region in the last six years.
The Union Minister for the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) said that soon after the Modi government took over in 2014, the prime minister had stated that every effort would be made to bring the Northeastern at par with more developed regions of the country.
The Modi government is reaching out to the remotest areas of the Northeast and doing its best to fulfil the needs and aspirations of the region, he said.
As for Mizoram, even though it is one of the smallest states of India, Singh recalled that the prime minister paid a visit to Aizwal to dedicate a 60-MW Tuirial hydropower project in December 2017, thus making Mizoram the third power-surplus state in the Northeast after Sikkim and Tripura.
He said the “intent, commitment and sincerity of the Modi government for the holistic development of the Northeast is quite obvious and the DoNER Ministry is carrying forward this mandate and the agenda”. He said there is a need to bring rest of India closer to the Northeast as “the tiny states offer so much to learn” from their rich and diverse cultural experiences.
Hailing the inauguration of the Zoram mega food park, Singh said it will help in doubling the income of farmers in the area by doing away with the middlemen.
Referring to nearly 40 per cent wastage of fruits in the absence of any processing unit, the minister said the rich and high variety of fruits could also be sold as pure packaged juice in major metropolitan cities in India.
The food park, located near National Highway 54, will help in overcoming the transportation constraints and will soon become a major milestone for the storage and processing of high variety of foods, spices, fruits and vegetables grown in the region, he said.
The minister expressed the hope that the Northeast will take a lead for India to emerge as an economic power with the support of its huge natural and human skill resources in the post-COVID era. (PTI)
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