An investment of Rs 40,000 crore is being made to improve the road infrastructure in the entire Northeast, which includes 19 big railway projects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday cajoled the Northeastern states to become cleaner if they want to serve as India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.
“If such a beautiful gateway is unclean, diseased, illiterate or disbalanced, then it will fail to cross the gateway of the country’s development. There is no reason why, with all our resources, we should remain backward or poor,” Modi said.
He was addressing the centenary celebrations of the voluntary organisation, Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS), in Shillong through video-conferencing.
Reminding the northeastern states that Gangtok was the only city that found a place among the first 50 clean cities, out of the 12 cities from the Northeast studied as part of the recent nationwide cleanliness survey, Modi said, “The Centre is making huge investments for the overall development of the region, but a lack of cleanliness could hamper this dream.”
While four northeastern cities found a place between ranks 100 and 200 in the cleanliness survey, seven were positioned between 200 and 300, with Shillong being ranked 276th, Modi said, stressing that ‘swachhata’ was a major challenge for everyone in the region.
He asked the people to join hands with organisations like the BSS and the state governments to take the cleanliness campaign forward.
The PM said the major thrust in the Northeast’s development would be laid on improving connectivity and developing the entire region for tourism purposes.
“All these initiatives will help to make the Northeast the gateway of Southeast Asia,” he said.
An investment of Rs 40,000 crore is being made to improve the road infrastructure in the entire Northeast, which includes 19 big railway projects.
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