Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent) for Science and Technology, etc., said on Saturday in Guwahati that the development of Assam and the Northeast in the past nine years serves as a role model for many other states, apart from playing an important role in the GDP growth of the country. Dr. Singh, who was launching a survey report called Purvodaya on the development activities in the past nine years in the Northeast, also said that while the region is abundant in natural resources, it was only after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister that the overall scenario in the region actually changed. Earlier, the state governments in the region had the mentality of showing problems with the slow implementation of developments despite the pumping of central funds. While it is a fact that the previous regimes did not display the same mentality and approach towards solving the region’s problems and accelerating the pace of development, one must accept that Modi’s kind of intervention has changed the entire development narrative of the region. One significant example of this is that the number of airports, railway trains, road connectivity, air connectivity, etc., in the region has almost doubled in the past nine years. As Dr. Singh has pointed out, the youth of the region, who were once in the grip of insurgency, have today flooded the entire hospitality sector across the country. With development as the mantra, bandhs and blockades, which had once become synonymous with the Northeast, have become things of the past. The number of visits made by Prime Minister Modi to the Northeast is also worth noticing. As pointed out by Dr. Singh, Modi, as Prime Minister, has visited the Northeast at least 60 times in nine years, which, according to him, could be more than the total number of visits by all his predecessors put together. Also worth mentioning is that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act - AFSPA - has been completely withdrawn from Meghalaya, Tripura, and Meghalaya and majorly removed from Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, except for a few pockets. What, however, has become a major issue of criticism is the Prime Minister’s failure to make a trip to Manipur, which has been on the boil following an outbreak of senseless violence between the Meiteis and Kukis in the state a few weeks ago.