Govt focused on promoting all-round development of North-East: Venkaiah Naidu

Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu has asserted that the Union Government is focused on promoting all-round development of the North-Eastern Region.

Various progressive measures taken by the government would help Assam and other North-Eastern states to scale higher peaks of progress and development in the future.

Naidu participated in several programmes on Sunday in Guwahati while addressing a gathering after presenting ‘Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Award for National Integration and Contribution’ to three recipients, he said Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi was a visionary leader whose unparalleled contribution to protecting India’s integrity and sovereignty in the turbulent times of partition deserved a special mention.


As the first Chief Minister of Assam in independent India, he implemented an array of progressive industrial policies and was also responsible for establishing a number of educational institutions, including Gauhati University.

The Vice President emphasized that the Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was focused on the need to promote all-round development of the North-Eastern Region. “As initiatives over the past seven and a half years reveal, development, peace and prosperity have been the top priorities for the Central Government”, he added and cited the example of the historic Karbi Anglong Agreement to end the decades-old crisis ensuring Assam’s territorial integrity.

He expressed confidence that Assam will be a shining example of development in the North East.

Naidu also referred to the Central government’s thrust to improving air connectivity in the North-Eastern Region.
He said the government’s focus on the need for accelerated progress of the North-East can be gauged from a range of initiatives, including the NER District SDG Index & Dashboard, a collaborative effort by NITI Aayog and Ministry of DoNER, with technical support from UNDP. He said it is the first of its kind in the country and of critical significance to the country’s development curve.

Vice President Naidu inaugurates PET-MRI Wing in State Cancer Institute.Naidu dedicated North East India’s first PET-MRI Wing at State Cancer Institute, Gauhati Medical College Hospital.

Naidu called for a powerful national campaign on the need to rejuvenate our rivers and suggested that ‘we save our rivers with a sense of immediacy’.

Noting that rivers have always been revered in India for their life-regenerating power, Naidu pointed out that growing urbanization and industrialization have led to pollution of rivers and other water bodies in different parts of the country. “In the past, our villages and cities used to be dotted with several water bodies. In the quest for modernization, man, driven by greed, has destroyed natural ecosystems and at several places, the water bodies have virtually disappeared or have been encroached upon”, he observed.

The Vice President began his trip by inaugurating the Heritage-cum-Cultural Centre on the banks of river Brahmaputra.

Naidu suggested to the Centre and the state governments to include lessons on the importance of water conservation in school curricula. He also suggested that schools should conduct nature camps for students from a young age so that children, especially those living in the urban areas, see and enjoy the splendor of nature.