BJP preparing vision document on highways in northeast

AGARTALA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will prepare a vision document for the appropriate management and use of national highways for better connectivity in the mountainous northeastern region, a party leader said here Monday.

“Mismanagement and inapt linking between the national highways and state highways caused rise in prices of all commodities and misery among the people of the northeastern region,” BJP’s northeast regional organising secretary P. Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters.

Explaining the improper connectivity among the eight northeastern states, Rao said: “A loaded truck with essentials requires 23 days to reach Manipur capital Imphal from Guwahati in Assam. As a result, people not only get goods at a much higher rate but the quality of the essentials also goes down.”

The northeast region has 19 national highways connecting the eight states.

“The proposed vision document on national highways in the northeast suggesting massive modification would be submitted to the ministry of road transport and highways as well as parliament for taking appropriate steps at the earliest,” Rao said.

A BJP parliamentary team led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj visited Manipur last week to study the ground situation in the state.

“The team would highlight the misery and plight of the people of the northeast during the coming parliament session beginning July 26,” Rao said.

Apart from the connectivity problems, Rao said that the central government’s subsidy policy was only helping the traders, investors and industrialists and the common people of the region were not getting any benefit.

“The subsidy procedure should drastically change so that the common people get the benefit of the financial support being provided for the industrial and power projects besides a numerous developmental schemes,” the BJP leader said.

Rao added that the over two crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were creating socio-economic and criminal problems in the region.

The BJP has urged the union home ministry and state governments to seal the northeast region’s border with Bangladesh to check infiltration.