Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the “Northeast model” is being followed by Jammu & Kashmir and other hill States.
One of the most recent and striking examples of this is that Jammu & Kashmir sought and secured an industrial Package on the same lines as the Northeast Industrial Package granted last year. This, he said, is a vindication of a successful Northeast outreach of the last nearly five years, which has resulted in a revolutionary transformation of the region, thus setting an example to be emulated by other regions of the country with similar topography and similar constraints.
Addressing the media after releasing the 2019 Northeast Wall Calendar and Table Calendar, Dr Jitendra Singh said, when this Government came in 2014, most people from the other parts of the country shirked from traveling to Northeast because of security concerns The roads were in a shambles, at least two States like Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh had never seen a train and many of the State capitals were devoid of air service.
Today, within a short span, he said, there is a visible change which is being universally appreciated by people from all sections of society. This has been mainly possible because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal indulgence, who has in the last four-and-a-half years, undertaken as many as around 35 visits to Northeast, which may be higher than the total number of visits undertaken by all the earlier Prime Ministers put together.
Northeast is the first region of the country, said Dr Jitendra Singh, which has got an exclusive NITI Aayog forum to focus on the region. Similarly, Northeast is the first-ever region of the country in the last 70 years which has an exclusive region-based Road Agency known as “Northeast Road Sector Development Scheme”.
The first-ever airport in Sikkim, said Dr Jitendra Singh, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister early this year and before that, he flagged off the first-ever train from Itanagar to New Delhi which was named Arunachal Express. The rail track from Agartala to Akhaura for first-ever train to Bangladesh is also being funded by the Ministry of DoNER.
The Forest Act, Dr Jitendra Singh said, has been modified to exclude home-grown Bamboo from it, to promote livelihood avenues. The “Venture Fund” introduced for the young startups, he said, has become so popular that it has started attracting young Startup Groups from different parts of the country and private tour operators even from South India have started tourism itineraries for States like Sikkim and Meghalaya.
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