Agartala: Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said the Government of India has allocated around Rs 6.5 lakh crore for the North East region after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office.
Crediting the Prime Minister for the overall development of the North East, Scindia said, “It is because of the Prime Minister’s resolve for the Ashtalakshmi comprising the seven sisters and Sikkim that this new wave of development has swept the entire region.
He made it mandatory for all 52 ministries to make a 10 percent additional budgetary allocation for the North East region and, if calculated roughly, the total funds that the Centre has earmarked and released in the last 10 years stand at Rs 6.5 lakh crore. In the last fiscal year alone, the budget for the North East stood at Rs one lakh crore.”
Taking note of Tripura’s growth story, the Union Minister asserted that the state has surpassed the national average of growth in the last decade by a significant margin.
“There was a time when Tripura’s GDP growth was limited to 3 to 4 percent. Cut to this day, Tripura is doing exceptionally well in almost all major fields. Data show that in the last decade Tripura’s GDP grew at a rate of 10.5 to 11 percent per annum. The national compounded growth rate, on the other hand, is 6.5 percent, which means Tripura is growing 125 percent faster than the 36 states and Union Territories of the country combined,” the Minister said at the central function organised at Pragna Bhavan for inauguration and foundation stone laying of DoNER-funded projects worth Rs 221 crore.
According to Scindia, the global growth rate ranges between 2.5 and 2.75 percent.
“The development has touched the lives of every human being living in the region, and the projects that are being dedicated for the public are definitely going to contribute positively to the lives of people,” he said.
He also hit out at previous governments for neglecting the North East and for the absence of even basic connectivity in the region. “In the last ten years, the highway network of Tripura grew to 1,550 km from 850 km. Freight connectivity through railways increased, and flight connectivity doubled after the inauguration of the new terminal of the Maharaja Bir Bikram airport,” he said.
According to the Union Minister, Guwahati and Tripura are going to become two gateways for the North East towards South East Asia.
On industrialisation in the North East, he said the DoNER Ministry conducted investment summits in different metro cities where MoUs worth Rs 55,000 crore were recorded. “We are working hard to ensure that all these MoUs get converted into full-fledged industrial units in Tripura and other parts of the North East,” he said.
During the event, the Union Minister inaugurated and laid foundation stones for a total of eight projects worth Rs 351 crore. The projects inaugurated and for which foundation stones were laid included the Jatanbari–Mandirghat via Tirathmukh Road, improvement of the KA Road from Erarpar to Ambassa, the Gandacherra–Raishyabari–Narikel Kunja Road, the Amarpur (Fatiksagar) to Chabimura connectivity project, a solar microgrid project under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE) scheme, the Kowaifung (Panjirai) to Karbook Road, the Jampui (PMGSY point) to Kangrai Road, and the Burighat to Sermun-II Road.
Earlier, the Union Minister told mediapersons that during his three-day Tripura visit, projects worth Rs 550 crore would be dedicated to the people of the state.
Interacting with reporters after landing at MBB Airport here, Scindia described Tripura as a land close to his heart. “The Scindia family shares a very close relationship with Tripura as my aunt, Maharani Padmavati Raje, was married to Maharaja Kirit Bikram Manikya of Tripura’s Manikya dynasty,” he said.
Emphasising Tripura’s agarwood sector, he said, “Agarwood is considered liquid gold and under the DoNER Ministry, a pilot project for the agar sector has been sanctioned for Tripura and Assam. A cluster-level processing unit for agarwood will be established at Kadamtala in North Tripura district with an investment of Rs 80 crore. I will attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the project at Kadamtala.”
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Apart from this, foundation stones for projects worth Rs 280 crore under the Matabari tourism sector will be unveiled at Narikelkunja on January 24. The Union Minister will also visit the Mata Tripura Sundari temple for darshan later in the evening.
Speaking at the same event, Chief Minister Manik Saha said Tripura’s growth story has been recognised at the national level, and the state has bagged more than 300 awards in the last 10 years at both national and regional levels under different parameters of development and performance.
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