Amit Shah calls upon people and governments of Northeast to make the region developed by the year 2047

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, December 21, 2024

The union home minister Amit Shah in his address to the ongoing 72nd plenary of North Eastern Council (NEC) today called upon the chief ministers, governors and people of northeast to spare no effort to make the region drug free. “During the past few years this region has emerged as major corridor and consumption centre of highly addictive and contraband drugs taking a heavy toll of lives , peace and social stability in the region ; we must all try together to get rid of this sin; the entire northeast has to be drug and addiction free within the shortest possible time” said Amit Shah. He added that the larger target is to make entire India drug-free .

Speaking on the issue of insurgency Amit Shah said that the region had been adversely affected by insurgency movements in various states with the beginning of blood-spilling insurgency in Nagaland way back in 1953. “But over the past few years altgogether 19,500 insurgents belonging to various outfits in various states have laid down arms and joined the mainstream of life; this includes groups like the Bodos,ULFA, several groups in Karbi Anglong area of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland , Meghalaya and Tripura’s NLFT and ATTF ; they will not work for peace and development after agreements have been signed” said Shah. In this context he also referred to the agreement signed with the ;Tripra Motha’ for tribal development and empowerment of the ADC in the same breath, as if indirectly equating the ‘Motha’ with the insurgent groups. He expressed the hope that all these groups will work together now to make the Northeastern region a developed region within the next two decades. He also highlighted the potential of northeast in terms of natural resources ,organic farming , rubber plantation , horticulture and natural gas etc and said that all these resources can be harnessed for true and multi-faceted development.

Promising to make best efforts to develop the northeast Amit Shah said that he himself along with the minister for Doner Jyotiraditya Scindia and minister of state Sukanta Majumder will always be available for help to the governments of northeast. He all made a strong case for training and orientation of police forces of northeastern states with the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS) and its provisions. He said that a conference of CMs in Delhi in February next year when the BNS and its provisions will be discussed at length and NE chief ministers and police chiefs should also attend this. “There is now an urgent need for change of culture of police forces in northeast ; peace has prevailed in northeast over the past ten years but in the new and changed circumstances police forces must also undergo fresh training and orientation; the police culture, an imperialist legacy, must also change along with fresh training and focus” said Amit Shah.

Amit Shah also asserted that altogether 111 schemes and projects are being implemented for development of northeast and for extending and firming up railway connectivity alone a huge amount of Rs 81 thousand crore is being spent. He expressed the hope that works on all the projects and railway connectivity will conclude within next three months. “ The development works implemented in Assam should serve as a model for other northeastern states also ; I urge upon the chief ministers of other states of the region to follow the Assam model” said Shah. He added that all in northeast should work hard with the single-minded zeal of developing the region along with the whole country by the year 2047 in all sectors earmarked for the region with special focus for tourism which can attract people, revenue and even investments.