PM Modi united Northeast region which suffered geographical isolation for 70 years, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Bsiwa Sarma on July 31 said that North-East which suffered for 70 years from geographical isolation, political instability and imbalanced development was united by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 9 years.

In a series of tweets, Sarma said, ''For 70 years, North East suffered from geographical isolation, political instability and imbalanced development, intentional ploys to divide and rule by Congress governments. In last 9 years, Hon PM has extensively focused on connecting and uniting our region''.

For 70 years, North East suffered from geographical isolation, political instability and imbalanced development, intentional ploys to divide and rule by Cong govts.

In last 9 years, Hon PM has extensively focused on connecting and uniting our region.

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— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 31, 2023

He said that the relentless focus on connectivity is not restricted to building physical linkages but winning the faith of the people by cementing emotional linkages.

''To begin with, Hon PM himself visited the region 60 times and his Council of Ministers, 400 times in last 9 years. No Central Government, since 1947, has invested so much political capital in a region, where some states send just 1 MP to the LS,'' he added.

The Assam Chief Minister also reminded that in 2023 for the first time, a Union Home Minister stayed overnight in an Arunachal town close to the China border and spent a night in Nagaland.

'While the culture of flying visits has ended and so has the culture of NE leaders travelling to Delhi asking for funds. Since 2014, Rs 3.64 lakh crore has been spent on the region under the Gross Budgetary Support Scheme of the Union Budget. Consequently, several conflicts in the region that lasted for 70 years were resolved in 9 years,'' Sarma avowed.

The Assam Chief Minister also said that be it the Bodo, Karbi conflict in Assam; the issues of Brus in Mizoram, or the NLFT insurgency in Tripura, many such discords have been extinguished under the leadership of PM Modi.

''Not just insurgency, we had infighting. Ad hoc formation of North Eastern States by the Cong meant states were fighting with states on boundary issues for 50 years or more. Most such matters involving Assam, Arunachal, Meghalaya, and Nagaland are nearing amicable resolution,'' he added.

Sarma said that in 9 years, there has been a 74 per cent reduction in insurgency and 89 per cent drop in civilian deaths in North-East, adding, ''Geographical application of AFSPA has been greatly reduced, not due to a cottage industry agitating against it but due to an improved security climate''.

Commenting on the physical connectivity, Sarma said that from 1947 to 2014, expenditure on infrastructure projects in the North-East was Rs 2 lakh crore. However, From 2014 to date, this figure stands at Rs 7 lakh crore.

''The National Highway network has expanded 86 per cent in last 9 years. The allocation for Rail expansion in North-East has increased by 263 per cent in last 9 years.

For the first time ever, all seven sister states will be connected by a common rail network. 2000 km of track is either being laid or upgraded at a cost of Rs 75,000 cr,'' he said.

He also said 90 per cent increase in airports in North-East has made our region the fastest growing air traffic zone in the country and 20 of our rivers are now part of the National Waterways. 

''A Rs 9000 crore gas pipeline will connect us to the Nation's Gas Grid and months within its launch, we are on the 5G map,'' he said.

He also said that the biggest evidence of this holistic transformation of connectivity in the Northeast is that for 2 consecutive times, 7 states in our region have voted for the NDA in state and parliamentary elections.