NORTHEAST GATEWAY TO SE ASIA, SAYS MODI

NEW DELHI/SHILLONG: The government aims to make the Northeast a gateway to Southeast Asia and was making huge investments for the overall development of the region, but lack of cleanliness could hamper this dream, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

Aiming to make the Northeast a gateway of Southeast Asia, the government has initiated major infrastructure projects in the seven states, including investing Rs 40,000 crore to improve the roads and highways, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

However, he lamented that “only Gangtok (in the Northeast) had found a place in the first 50 clean cities,” out of the 12 cities from the region surveyed as part of the recent nationwide cleanliness survey.

While four NE cities found a place between 100 and 200 clean cities, seven were positioned between 200 and 300, with Shillong being the 276th, he said stressing that 'Swachhata' or cleanliness was a major challenge for everyone in the region. He was addressing the centenary celebrations of the prominent voluntary organisation, Bharat Sevashram Sangha, in Shillong through video conferencing.

"We have to make the Northeast a gateway for Southeast Asia," Modi said, adding if this gateway is dirty, then the dream would not be fulfilled and asked the people and organisations like the Sangha to join hands in the cleanliness campaign.

Observing that there has been no balanced development in the entire Northeastern region even so many years after Independence, Modi said his government "with all its resources" had planned to bring about overall and balanced development of the states here.

The PM said major thrust would be to improve connectivity and develop the entire region for tourism purposes. "All these initiatives will help to make the Northeast the gateway of Southeast Asia," he said. While an investment of Rs 40,000 crore is being made to improve road infrastructure in NE, 19 big rail projects have also been started in the region, he said.