Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said there has been a "miraculous" transformation in the north east in the past nine years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, according to an official statement. Addressing an event here, he said nine years ago, the north east was in news for wrong reasons like insurgency, clash, etc.
"Youths were confused and disturbed. Now the situation has changed dramatically with the initiative of PM Narendra Modi. Northeastern youth are now part of India's mainstream journey," said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.
"As Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has visited the northeast around 60 times in nine years which could be more than the total number of visits by all his predecessors put together. The result is miraculous transformation in the region and northeast is being cited all over as Modi government's development model," he was quoted as having said in the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.
Singh said the Union council of ministers has also visited the north east more than 400 times "and if there were no Covid-19, the PM might have visited (the region) 100 times".
"In the nine years of government under the leadership of PM Modi, there has been a miraculous transformation in the north east," he said while inaugurating the "Purvoday" conclave.
Singh said that during the last eight years, from 2014 to 2022, 1,350 projects worth Rs 15,867 crore have been sanctioned under the schemes of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and North Eastern Council (NEC) in the north-eastern states.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) has been completely removed from Tripura and Meghalaya, and majorly removed from Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh barring some areas, the statement said.
He said the law and order situation has been vastly improved as there has been a reduction of 63 per cent in the incidents from 8,700 cases during the period 2006-14 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime to only 3,195 cases during the period of 2014-22, in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led government.
Elaborating on the road infrastructure development in the region, Singh said that till 2013-14, the total length of National Highways in the north east was 8,480 km, which increased to 15,735 km in 2022-23 under the Modi government, showcasing a growth of 85.55 per cent.
Besides, since 2014-15, the government has spent Rs 19,855 crore for the development of new tracks and doubling the existing lines of the railways in the north-east region, the minister added.
