Guwahati/Shillong, Jul 12 (IANS): Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Purvodaya’ for this region would be the gateway of India’s progress.
Scindia, who as part of his maiden two-day visit to Assam and Meghalaya as DoNER minister, arrived in Guwahati, said that the northeast region was a repository of culture, tradition, abundance of resources and that repository must be showcased to the world.
“Huge social development as well as progress in health, education, sports, tourism and industry took place during the last ten years of the NDA government. The region has huge resources of bamboo, agar woods and many other natural resources with tremendous potential for development,” the minister told the media at the Guwahati airport.
Referring to the portfolio of Civil Aviation he held during the previous tenure, Scindia said that the number of airports in the region increased from 9 to 17.
“Though this is my first visit as the DoNER Minister, I have very old and strong ties with this region. I would like to thank the PM, our party President (JP Nadda), and our Home Minister (Amit Shah) for giving me this responsibility.
“It will be my resolve that the PM's vision of ‘Purvodaya’ for this region to be the gateway of India's progress, translates into reality. This vision has been on track for the last 10 years in terms of the huge outlay increase for the northeast,” he said.
He added that the budgetary outlay for the northeastern region had been increased from Rs 24,000 crore to almost Rs 82,000 crore, from infrastructure point of view, whether it's roads, rail or civil aviation.
“Our ‘Look East policy’ is now an ‘Act East policy’ and the northeast region would be a pivot in that policy going forward..." the DoNER minister said, adding that he would act as a facilitator of aspiration of each state of the northeast region.
Later the DoNER Minister left for Shillong where he would hold a series of meetings with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and senior officials on various issues of developments and schemes.
In Shillong, Scindia would chair a review meeting at the North East Council Secretariat with the officials from DoNER ministry, NEC, and state governments of the region to assess the progress of various regional projects and initiatives.
The ‘NEC Vision 2047’ would be presented in the meeting and the NERACE app would be launched.
The NERACE app serves as a unified digital platform designed to connect farmers with global markets, facilitating direct transactions and price negotiations.
It includes a multilingual helpline (English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Nepali, Khasi, Mizo, and Manipuri) and integrates farmers and sellers, thereby enhancing agricultural connectivity across northeast India.