Shillong, July 10: Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the ‘New Northeast’ will emerge with better road connectivity and information technology.

Addressing the concluding day of Plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC), the Union Home Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a dream of New India by 2022, and the road to ‘New India’ will go through a developed and peaceful ‘New Northeast’.

“The New Northeast will emerge with better road connectivity and information technology. Northeast needs better road connectivity and it has recently made some progress in this area. The economic potential of the region will be realized with better connectivity,” Singh said.

He said that if quality broadband services can be provided in the region, the youth of the North East will find employment opportunities closer to their home and this would also stop migration of local youth to distant areas of the country.

The Union Home Minister said the ITIs and Polytechnic Institutes should play a role in Skill Development, while asking the NEC to also consider setting up the Regional Institute for Skill Development.

Singh said impetus to employment and income generation will help contain the problems like insurgency in the North Eastern Region (NER). “The North-Eastern states need to create a conducive environment for private investments which should make the investors feel safe and their problems are addressed. It will give a big boost to investments,” he said.

The Union Home Minister also stressed on accelerating growth of agriculture to achieve the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

“We should focus on growing low volume-high value crops for export. Railway Ministry can help in exporting the perishable commodities and horticulture produce like kiwis and flowers through superfast AC wagons.”

He also suggested the revival of North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC) for marketing of agriculture produces. “The North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) with the Self Help Groups can extend help in this effort to increase the income and employment generation in the region.”

Singh also assured Centre’s support to the North Eastern states in improving Police infrastructure and urged North Eastern states to capitalise on the prevailing peaceful scenario to improve the law and order situation and strengthen policing in the region.

Stating that each of the North Eastern State has been blessed with unique development potential, Singh said, “We need to identify those specific development areas and chalk out a plan with effective implementation. The implementation should be in a time bound manner. We need to prevent leakages in the system and ensure total transparency and accountability. I urge the Chief Ministers of all North Eastern states to work towards this end with missionary zeal.”

The two-day 67th Plenary of the NEC was attended by Union Minister for DoNER, Jitendra Singh, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the NEC, besides Governors and Chief Ministers and senior officers of the eight North-Eastern states and Union Ministry of DoNER.