Singh says PM Modi the reason for North-East Development
Mokokchung, April 15 (MTNews): Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio during a meeting with Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday discussed various state-related issues ranging from development to placement of all India services officers.
During this meet, Rio said how the people of Nagaland look up at Singh as their “messenger in the national capital” and requested Singh to follow up with the central government on the progress of some project proposals for Nagaland. To this, Singh said his office will take due cognizance.
However, Singh wasted no time in hailing PM Modi by crediting him as the reason behind Northeast’s “miraculous transformation.” According to Singh, PM Modi is the only Prime Minister in India who had undertaken more than 50 visits to the northeastern states and that Modi’s visit to Nagaland was an all-time high in comparison to all others PMs’ visits.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, the Modi government has adopted the ‘Act East Policy’ and has been giving significant attention towards the region be it in terms of economy, infrastructure, employment, industry, culture and mainly tourism.
Centre’s tourism push for Nagaland
The year Modi came to power in 2014, Ministry of Tourism has launched 2 flagship schemes of ‘Swadesh Darshan’ and ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD)’ for development of tourism infrastructure in the country.
Swadesh Darshan scheme aims at development of thematic circuits and has sanctioned 10 projects under heritage theme in this scheme. The Ministry has now revamped Swadesh Darshan scheme in order to develop sustainable and responsible destinations with tourist & destination centric approach. The PRASHAD scheme of the Ministry of Tourism aims at integrated development of identified pilgrimage and heritage destinations.
According to the Annual Report 2021-2022 of Ministry of Tourism, under Swadesh Darshan Scheme, in 2015-2016, Nagaland was sanctioned Rs. 97.36 crore for Development of tribal circuit at Peren-Kohima-Wokha where Rs. 87.62 crore has been released so far. Similarly, in 2016-2017, an amount of Rs. 98.14 crore was sanctioned for Development of tribal circuit at Mkg-Tuensang-Mon where Rs. 88.33 crore has been released.
Further, under the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) Scheme, an amount of Rs.25.26 crore was sanctioned for development of pilgrimage facilitation in Nagaland out of which Rs. 15.68 crore has been released so far for the ongoing project.
Meanwhile, an amount of Rs.30 lakhs has been released so far under the Domestic Promotion and Publicity including Hospitality (DPPH) scheme.
(For details, refer table)
