The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressing during the Festival of Arunachal 2015, at Itanagar, in Arunachal Pradesh on February 20, 2015.

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) and Chairman North-East Council, Dr Jitendra Singh recently noted that this was one of the best times the North-east which is part of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s “India vision”. The Minister was addressing Governors and Chief Ministers of the eight States on the second day of 64th Plenary Meeting of North-eastern Council (NEC) held in April 2015.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, it is a golden opportunity when on the one hand, the entire world is looking up to India as a place of happening and on the other hand, Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, who has emerged as a world leader of international reckoning, inspires a renewed feeling of national esteem through his concept of “Make in India” which is envisaged to be achieved through Make in Northeast.

In this context, he referred to Prime Minister’s original description of eight States of Northeast as Ashta Lakshmi, which not only symbolizes a historic but also a perspective connotation for growth, development and economy. Nothing can be more significant than the fact that during his very first visit to Northeast as Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi announced the setting up of six Agricultural Colleges in the North-East Region and laid emphasis on developing the NER as a hub of organic farming.

Dr. Jitendra Singh also noted that besides poor connectivity and accessibility, another major problem faced by North-east is youth exodus because of poor opportunities of higher education and meager avenues of employment. Keeping this in mind, Government of India has announced setting up of Sports University in Manipur and launched two ambitious schemes, Ishaan Uday – special scholarship scheme for students of the region and Ishaan Vikas – a scheme to provide apprenticeship facility to students of the region in IITs, NIITs and NIFTs of other parts of the country.

Describing the Governors and Chief Ministers as the guardians and torch-bearers of development plans envisaged by Government of India for Northeast, Dr. Jitendra Singh called upon them to render their kind inputs and suggestions in order to enable the DoNER Ministry to function in close coordination with them and to live up to the diverse expectations of the various sections of society in the eight different States of Northeast.

Dr. Singh also shared from his personal experience and noted that he has been personally in touch individually with each of the Governors and Chief Ministers of Northeast and will always be open to their inputs for fulfilling the dream of bringing the eight North-Eastern States at par with the other States of India.

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