The people of Tripura aspire to achieve new heights of glory and are in need of better employment opportunities, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday at a rally in Sonamura town in the northeast Indian state of Tripura. The state will go to the polls on February 18.
“The reality of Tripura for two and a half decades is a secret concealed from the national mainstream and thus, nobody is aware of the happenings over here in the name of governance. But now the time has come for real development and the next BJP Government will provide it,” Modi said.
Also Read- Modi heading to Tripura to heat up BJP’s election campaign
Speaking on apportionment of development funds to Tripura, the prime minister said, “As per the formula for devolution of funds from the Centre, Tripura has always been a recipient of 89% of its (central government) annual budgetary allocations; this is continuing for long but whenever we get any accounting or utilisation certificate, we find that most of the time the funds are unutilized.”
He also recalled former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s contributions to Northeast India’s development.
Also Read- Tripura polls: Political parties hit campaign trail hard
“It was Vajpayee who set up a separate department for the development of Northeast India and that is the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Ministry,” Modi added.
Stressing on BJP’s serious intentions on strengthening connectivity in Tripura, Modi said, “We have already given broad-gauge railway connectivity to Tripura, improved the national highways and large allocations have been given for development of airports in Tripura. Agartala is now the third city in the country for international internet gateways after Mumbai and Chennai. The face of Tripura will radically change once we launch direct connectivity with Bangladesh through Sabroom and Chittagong airport.”
Also Read- Modi to visit Tripura on Thursday
He accused the current government of creating an atmosphere of fear and quelling dissent.
Hitting out at the ruling party in Tripura, Modi said, “CPI-(M) keeps demanding answers from the Modi Government in Delhi but here they are answerable to their own people as to what they have done for the past 25 years.”
