10 years under Modi govt have been golden era for Northeast: Amit Shah

Shillong, Jan 19 (PTI) The last 10 years under the Modi government have been a golden era for the Northeast with an unprecedented focus on infrastructure development and conflict resolution, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.

The Northeast is today shifting away from its history of blockades and unrest and is pacing towards peace and development, he said.

Addressing the 71st plenary session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) here, Shah also said that under the leadership of PM Modi, not only the distance from the Northeast to Delhi and the rest of India has reduced due to the creation of infrastructure, but the difference of hearts has also come down.

"The last 10 years under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the most significant decade for the Northeast as it has seen most development in the 75 years since independence," he said.

He said the Northeast, which was struggling with various problem caused by ethnic, linguistic, border and extremist groups, also got the beginning of a fresh and durable era of peace in these 10 years.

The home minister said if these 10 years for the Northeast are compared with the 75 years after the country's independence, then this decade will definitely be considered as the golden period for the region.

He said the Modi government has always considered the Northeast as an important part of India.

Shah said that between 2004 and 2014, a total of 11,121 violent incidents took place in the Northeast and it has declined by 73 percent to 3,114 between 2014 and 2023.

Deaths among security forces dropped by 71 per,cent from 458 to 132, while civilian deaths declined by 86 per cent, he said.

He said the incidents of insurgency have come down because in the last five years more than 8,900 members of militant groups have surrendered and joined the mainstream. This has given a message to the entire country that peace and prosperity are interconnected and without them the states cannot develop, he said.

The home minister said that to bring peace and stability in the Northeast, the Modi government has signed nine agreements and many pending law and order issues have been successfully resolved through these.

He said that except some parts of Assam and Manipur, 75 per cent of the areas covered under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in 2018 are no longed under it.

The home minister said that priority was accorded to the development of the Northeast during the time of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when a separate ministry was created for the region. And today, the three mantras of 'Act East, Act Fast and Act First' are being implemented under the leadership of PM Modi, he said.

Along with this, impetus is being given to the Northeast by giving priority to it in all ministries of the government, he said.

He said the Modi government has allocated Rs 4,800 crore from 2022-23 to 2025-26 for the Northeast and there is an increase of about 162 per cent in the budget for the region.

Shah said the 10 per cent Gross Budgetary Support scheme has greatly benefited the development of the region. An allocation of Rs 1,500 crore has been made in PM-DevINE (Prime Minister's Development Initiative for North Eastern Region) for 2022-23 and Rs 6,600 crores for 2025-26.

An inter-ministerial task force has been formed for agriculture, eight ropeways have been taken up under the National Ropeway Development Programme, and the budget of the DoNER Ministry has increased by 153 per cent, he said.

Under the National Edible Oil Mission, Rs 234 crore have been allocated in the Northeast alone to give priority to palm oil. Along with this, 32 projects worth Rs 1,713 crore have been approved under the Special Infrastructure Development Plan of Northeast, the home minister said.

Among the achievements of North Eastern Development Finance Corporation, schemes worth Rs 5,490 crore have been approved from January 2023 to December 2023 and under the SAMBHAV scheme, work is being done to provide basic facilities to 75 Gram panchayats and councils of 42 districts of the eight states in the region.

The home minister said that in the last 10 years, the Modi government has invested Rs 81,000 crore in the railways, Rs 48,000 crore in road connectivity and 5,196 km road length have been constructed in the Northeast under the Bharat Mala project.

Under the UDAN scheme, eight new airports have been constructed and 71 new air routes started in these 10 years, he said.

He said that under the leadership of PM Modi, the role and scope of the North Eastern Council (NEC) has increased under the Act East Policy.

He said everyone will have to give thrust to create a flood-free and drug-free Northeast and work for strengthening water management by using the expertise of the North Eastern Space Applications Centre.

Referring to the three recently enacted criminal justice laws, Shah said these have been brought to take the country's criminal-justice system into the 21st century.

Within three years of the issuance of the notifications, the country's criminal justice system will become the most modern and scientific in the whole world, he said. PTI