East is nerve centre of India’s growth: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Bihar to attend the concluding ceremony of the centenary programme of Patna high court, shared the dais with his political arch rival and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. The two leaders after the function in Patna shared the same helicopter to reach Chaukulia Village in Hajipur for the inauguration of two mega rail projects.

However, during the inaugural function, the Prime Minister had to wave to the public to stop cheering his name while chief minister Nitish Kumar addressed them. This was his first visit to Bihar after Assembly election in which NDA lost bitterly last year.

Holding that the “nerve centre” of India’s development lies in eastern India, the Prime Minister said that he is of the firm opinion that India can’t think of development by ignoring eastern states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and other north-eastern states and Bihar. “Eastern India is the nerve Centre of this country. So development of eastern states is necessary for development of India,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while dedicating two Ganga railway projects — one between Munger and Khagaria and another between Digha in Patna and Sonepur in Saran district — to the nation. He also laid the foundation stone for a rail bridge at Mokamma.

“Bihar is a priority for us because we feel Bihar’s progress is key to India’s progress. This government has spent more for the projects in Bihar in last two and a half years than what was spent in five years earlier. This was done because it is my conviction that if India has to progress fast, Bihar’s development has to be accelerated,” he said.

The Prime Minister attacked the previous UPA government for “ignoring the development of Bihar since impedance”.

“The cost of Digha-Sonepur, which started when Mr Kumar was the railway minister and Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister in 2003, “escalated to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 600 crore due to delays,” he said.

The Prime Minister during his 20-minute speech also spoke about the foreign direct investment worth Rs 40,000 crore for Bihar. “For 18 months, Bihar has been Centre’s priority and now time has come that state and Centre must move forward shoulder to shoulder for the sake of development,” he said.

The Prime Minister during the event also spoke about his government’s initiative for 18,000 villages not connected with electricity. He said, “The target is to give electricity to such villages within one thousand days and most of such villages are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar”.