ANI
New Delhi, March 5
Nagaland Chief Minister T.R.Zeliang called on Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Jitender Singh, on Thursday, and discussed the activation and progress of some important projects related to his state. Briefing media after the meeting, Zeliang said, "I came to discuss some of the important projects related to my state. In the past, people hardly knew the north east region. If we take up the project, the work will be visible. The entire Government of India will come to know. We are thankful to the Prime Minister of India."
On his part, Jitender Singh said, "We have started a process of having each chief minister from the north east to come and meet us. This process has been on since the month of January. Nagaland has problem of connectivity. We have made some headway."
On why Zeliang had come to Delhi to see him, he said, "He was there to inaugurate the first-ever railway link to Meghalaya."
Development initiatives in the neglected North-East could dovetail into a larger Indian strategy of re-calibrating ties with China, especially when seen in the context of India's outreach towards some of its other neighbours, analysts have been quoted by the Mint newspaper, as saying.
Last year, the government approved Rs.15,000 crore for building roads in the North-East and another reported Rs.5,000 crore for resettling people in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh; ordered the Indo-Tibetan Border Police to set up 54 new stations; approved a Rs.5,336.18 crore plan to improve telecommunication links with optical fibre connectivity; sanctioned Rs.9,877 crore to set up a power transmission network, and Rs.38,000 crore for railway infrastructure upgradation.
The focus on upscaling infrastructure in the North-East is a considered move.
