Itanagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called the north -east inspiring power to the development of the country and said that it is playing an important role in the development of India.
Addressing a public rally at Indira Gandhi Park in Itanagar after laying foundation stones for 13 development projects worth more than Rs 5,127 crore in Arunachal Pradesh, PM Modi said that the country aims to generate 500 GW of electricity from solar, wind and water resources.
“To achieve this energy target, Arunachal Pradesh will have a significant contribution as many power plants are now subject to commission in the state,” he said.
Emphasizing that the Northeast is close to his heart, Modi recalled that the region had lagged behind in development during Congress rule for a long time.
He said, “We have never seen development through the lens of votebank politics. Directed by our ‘Nation First’ motto, we have intensified the growth across the country and the Northeast,” he said that his government “does not run in Delhi alone”.
The Prime Minister said that he has visited the Northeast more than 70 times in the last eleven years, while Union Ministers have visited the region.
He said, “Union ministers not only visited the state capitals; they went to far -flung areas, spent days on the ground to monitor the projects and understand the needs of the people. During the Congress rule, during the Congress rule, the Union Ministers hardly visited the region,” he claimed.
“Only last week I visited Mizoram, Manipur and Assam and started several development projects.”
Recalling that Surya rises for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh, but the initiative of development was used to reach the previous state, the Prime Minister criticized the Congress era to consider the state politically insignificant as it sends only two MPs to the Lok Sabha.
He said, “Our approach is different. We first kept development despite political gains. We see eight states of the Northeast as Ashtalakshmi, as the region has blessed with immense resources,” he said.
PM Modi highlighted that all states receive a part of central taxes and in the last ten years, Arunachal Pradesh has received more than Rs 1 lakh crore as its tax share, more than sixteen times the amount allocated during the previous period.
“In addition to tax deviations, the state has been provided thousands of crores of rupees through hundreds of development projects,” he said.
The Prime Minister underlined how “it has improved” ease of living “through better health care, education and professional opportunities, has benefited people all over North -East.
Referring to the ambitious Sela Tunnel Project, he said that no one had dreamed of such important infrastructure earlier.
The Sela Tunnel inaugurated by PM Modi on March 9, 2024, is the world’s longest by-lane tunnel at 13,000 feet, including two tunnels and a link road, providing an all-visitor connectivity to the Tawang region.
He said that Arunachal Pradesh has seen changes in connectivity with new highways, extended railway lines and better air links, business and employment opportunities for youth.
The PM said, “Earlier, the Congress governments called the border villages of Arunachal the ‘last village of India’, and Vikas reached them. Today, we have turned them to the ‘first villages’ of the country.”
He said that in the past, backward districts are now being developed as an aspirational districts, and more than 400 border villages are getting all weather roads, internet and other facilities.
The Prime Minister said, “These developed border villages of Arunachal Pradesh are now emerging as tourist centers.”
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