Kalimpong: Darjeeling MP and BJP national spokesperson Raju Bista has expressed hope that the NDA government at the Centre will work towards including North Bengal under the purview of the North East Council (NEC).
Bista said that including North Bengal, especially the Darjeeling hills and the Terai and Dooars areas, under the NEC will ensure that the region too gets benefits of various developmental priorities, projects and schemes of the central government.
“The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only outlined a development vision for the Northeast but has also provided adequate financial resources towards realising the same. In the past 8 years, our government has provided over Rs 3,36,640.97 crore towards the development of the northeast,” the MP said in a statement on Tuesday.
“As our nation takes concrete steps towards realizing the vision of PM Modi’s “Aatma Nirbhar”, I must say this with pride that our North Eastern states and region will not be left wanting,” he further said, adding that the region will be contributing equally towards nation building and will be leading from the front in ensuring the economic prosperity of the nation.
“Given the geographical continuity, socio-cultural, linguistic and other shared history and heritage of Darjeeling hills and the Terai and Dooars with the rest of the North Eastern region, I am most hopeful that the government will also work towards including North Bengal too in the NEC,” Bista said.
The NEC is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North eastern region, which consists of the eight states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
Constituted in 1971 by an Act of the parliament, the council has marked the beginning of a new chapter of concerted and planned endeavor for the rapid development of the region.
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