Assam is Indebted to Vajpayee for his Unstinted Support, Says Himanta Biswa Sarma

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that at a time when the northeastern states had been under the dark shadow of insurgents, besides financial crisis, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee dreamt of a developed Northeast.

The Chief Minister said that Vajpayee had said that the people of the Northeast have the first right over national resources. Vajpayee accorded much importance to putting an end to regional disparity between the northeastern states and the rest of India and took a whole lot of measures to take the region forward on a par with the rest of India, he said.

The Chief Minister said this while unveiling the statue of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and inaugurating an exhibition celebrating the life and times of Bharat Ratna Vajpayee at the Atal Udyan Complex at Adabari in Guwahati on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary today.

The Chief Minister said, “Vajpayee’s special love and affection towards Assam and the Northeast have led to too many firsts for the region, and the people of Assam will always be indebted to him for his unstinted support to the state and its ambitions.” The Chief Minister said, “Let alone the development of the Northeast, Vajpayee did support the Assam Agitation wholeheartedly. He came to Assam to boost the confidence of the student leaders.”

Enumerating a few works that the Vajpayee government had done for Assam and other northeastern states, the Chief Minister said, “For the development of the northeastern states, his government formed the Ministry of DoNER. He even went a step ahead and mandated the Union ministries to spend ten percent of their gross budgetary allocations for the development of the Northeast. In order to prevent the lapse of unspent funds from the Northeast going back to the Centre, Vajpayee introduced the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources for the northeast states.”

On infrastructure development, the Chief Minister said, “It was the Vajpayee government that started the Silchar to Saurashtra East-West Corridor and released funds for the Bogibeel Bridge Project. Under his prime ministership, Assam saw for the first time a four-lane national highway from Khanapara to Jalukbari, besides the extension of the broad gauge railway lines to the Barak Valley.”

The Chief Minister reminded that the first Chief Minister of Assam, late Gopinath Bordoloi, was accorded the Bharat Ratna Award posthumously when Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. “Vajpayee was the prime minister when the Xatriya Dance got recognition as a classical dance form of India and Nameri got national park status. The historic Bodo Accord was signed in 2003 when Vajpayee was the prime minister.”

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