Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 23: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first of its kind, Northeast “Table Book” prepared by North Eastern Council (NEC). Secretary NEC, Ram Muivah was also present.
The book contains a pictorial depiction of the exclusive features of each of the eight States of Northeast and its highlight is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Shillong on 27th May this year, which assumes historic importance because it happened to be the first time after 40 years that a Prime Minister of India had attended the plenary meeting of North Eastern Council at Shillong which is the headquarters of the Council. The last Prime Minister to do so was Morarji Desai in the year 1977.
Briefing about the 108 page volume book, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the book has been titled “A story of sagacity and success” and its creation was possible because of the inspiration and patronage personally provided by Narendra Modi. He said, when the present government took over in May 2014, the North Eastern Council headquarters in Shillong had not been visited by any Union Minister from Delhi for the last 10 years, while the North-Eastern Council meeting at Shillong had not been attended by any Prime Minister for the last 40 years.
Within a short span of two years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, not only there is a sea change but the people of Northeast have also developed a feeling of belonging because of the personal attention paid by Prime Minister Modi, under whose directions a roster was issued wherein in any given fortnight, eight Union Ministers from the Centre are expected to tour the North-Eastern region, which, in other words, means that in any given period of 15 days, there will be at least one Union Minister visiting each one of the eight States in the region.
There have been certain incredible developments in the last two years, observed Dr Jitendra Singh and said, for example, States like Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, which had never seen a train, are now on the rail-map of India and work is in progress on fast-track to lay broad-gauge rail-track in the entire region. Not only this, he said, very soon, there will be a train from Agartala to Bangladesh and the mode of transport has been facilitated by the historic “Land Boundary Agreement” between India and Bangladesh, which had been pending for the last 40 years ever since the birth of Bangladesh, but was pushed forward by Prime Minister Modi.
Early this year, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Sikkim achieved the distinction of becoming the first “ODF” (Open Defecation Free) State of India and also the first “Organic State” of India and in September this year, two far-flung cities, namely Kohima in Nagaland and Namchi in Sikkim have been included by the Union Ministry of Urban Development to be developed as Smart Cities.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
