Look Forward

The admission made by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav while presenting the railway budget for the next fiscal about Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s involvement regarding the development of the North-Eastern region, will definitely please every North-Easterners. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad thanking Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for declaring the three projects as national projects in his Railway Budget address said that “I express my gratitude to the Prime Minister for declaring the construction of these projects as ‘National Projects’.” It will not be unfair on the part of the people of the North-East to expect that the new policy will provide the much needed impetus for industrial development in the region as the region is yet to be benefited from industrialization. Thus it is heartening to see that the Prime Minister himself is taking care to bring the region at par with other developed regions of the country. As a matter of fact in a recent programme in Barpeta district of Assam, Dr. Manmohan Singh admitted that being a Rajya Sabha member from Assam, it had been his endeavour to give special attention to the economic development of the State as well as the region. The Prime Minister further added that by promoting peace and development, Assam and the region would be able to take its rightful place among the leading states of the country in the days to come. Indeed peace and development is the cry of the people of the North-East region for long. But developmental process in the region was hampered by unrest and violent activities. For example, because of underground activities, no one is willing to make investment in the region. The private entrepreneurs prefer other states more than Assam or North-East. It’s a new phenomenon. Earlier, the huge potential of North-East attracted many investors towards the region, especially in tea and oil industries. It is only because of insurgency the Tourism as an industry did not flourish in the region notwithstanding the huge potential of the North-East. With the Prime Minister willing to go all out to ensure speedy economic development of the region, time has now come to make amends of earlier mistakes and contribute in every manner possible for the development of the North-East.

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