Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s three- day visit to Assam was marked by a series of decisive actions and vision plans for the North East of India, in general, and Assam in particular.
Whereas he made an affirmative declaration to end the problem of flood in five years, he asked chief ministers of all the North East States to make full use and benefit of NESAC data for flood control, irrigation, tourism, afforestation and agriculture. On this, he event suggested that all States of the region should appoint a nodal officer for NESAC in their states so that maximum and better use of this platform can be made.
The Union Home Minister added that a flood-free region is very important for the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Emphasising the measures to prevent floods, Shah added that the purpose of hydro power plants is not only to generate energy, but they can also be used in flood prevention.
The Union Home and Cooperation Minister said this while presiding over the 70th plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council in Guwahati. Union Minister For Culture, Tourism And Development of North Eastern Region, G. Kishan Reddy and Minister of State for Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and Ministry of Cooperation, B L Verma, the governors and chief ministers of all the North Eastern States were present in the meeting.
In his address, Amit Shah said that there were three major hurdles in the path of development of the North East for decades – violence and unrest by extremist groups, lack of rail, road and air connectivity and absence of thrust on development of the region by previous Governments.
“The development of this region was never a priority for the previous Governments. But under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre has made many efforts in the last eight years to bring peace here, to increase connectivity and to give priority to the development of this region,” said Shah.
Shah said that the whole of India considers the languages, cultures, cuisine and costumes of the North East of the country as its heritage and the Central Government is making every effort to preserve and promote the natural identity of this region.
Shah said that the Government believes that all-round development of the country is possible only by taking all the languages of the country together and accordingly a provision has been made in the new National Education Policy that primary education should be imparted in the mother tongue.
“The Indian economy is currently ranked fifth in the world and financial discipline by the North Eastern States is necessary to contribute to making it second in the world,” added Shah.
Highlighting the importance of natural farming and digital farming, Shah said that natural farming and digital farming are a matter of priority for the Government of India and the process of forming a multi-state cooperative society by merging Amul and five other cooperatives for certification of natural products is also started. He said that after certification of these products, this cooperative society will also ensure their export, so that the profit will go directly to the bank accounts of the farmers.
