Kisama, December 2 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the Hornbill Festival and Nagaland Statehood Day celebrations in Kisama. Modi, dressed as a Naga warrior, said that unlike the rest of India which had SEZs (Special Economic Zones), the Northeast region was full of NEZs – “Natural Economic Zones”.
“In other parts of India, you will find SEZs – they are manmade. But here, it is NEZ. But unfortunately, it’s untapped. It is my priority to tap this NEZ for NE (Northeast). NEZ meant for NE; NE meant for NEZ,” he said amid applause.
In his speech, Modi also took a dig at former prime minister Manmohan Singh claiming he did not visit Nagaland during his 10-year tenure. “Atal Bihari Vajpayee came here 10 years ago. Today, if I want to come to Nagaland from Delhi or go to Delhi from Nagaland, it would not take me more that 10 to 15 hours.
But the Prime Minister took more than 10 years to reach here. You won’t have to wait for so long for the Prime Minister to visit you again. I will often come here,” he said. Modi then recounted some initiatives taken by his government for the Northeast.
One scheme is Ishan Uday – a special scholarship for Northeast students which will benefit 10,000 students. The second is Ishan Vikas – an internship at IITs and NITs for 2,000 students and 500 teachers from Northeast every year.
The third is a modern apparel and garment manufacturing centre in each Northeast state, starting with Nagaland, Assam and Sikkim. Fourth initiative is 14 new railway line projects to built at a cost of worth 28,000 crore.
The fifth move is a comprehensive telecom development plan for the Northeast with Rs.5,000 crore earmarked for 2G mobile coverage. There will also be a National Sports University for Northeast and six new colleges for agriculture. “The Northeast can be capital of organic agriculture,” Modi said.
-INDIA TODAY
