Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah today inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 29 development works worth Rs 2,450 crore in Manipur through video conferencing.

Chief Minister of Manipur N Biren Singh was present on the occasion.

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The Home Minister said this year was the 75th year of the nation’s Independence and the whole country was celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Manipur will also complete 50 years of its formation. In a sense, 75 years of Independence and 50 years of Manipur are years of new resolve and new energy for all Manipuris, he said.

Manipur, he said, was made the gateway for freedom struggle by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Manipur had the opportunity to hoist the first flag of the INA.

Shah said that the State Government under the leadership of Chief Minister N Biren Singh was committed to development of every corner of Manipur in the past five years.

Be it mountains, valleys, forests, villages or cities, the Chief Minister achieved success in bringing development everywhere. These five years will be written about as the Golden Age in the history of Manipur.

Along with development, he said, violence has also been controlled to a great extent. Unless there is stability and peace, development is impossible, he said.

The biggest achievement of the Biren Singh government was that it had opened the avenues of stability and peace as well as development for Manipur. Manipur has made a successful effort to come out from the tradition of blockades, violence, corruption, bandhs, drugs trade of previous governments, the Home Minister said.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 21 projects worth more than Rs 3,000 crore yesterday and laid the foundation stone of five National Highway projects.

The Prime Minister launched several schemes covering areas such as drinking water supply, health, urban development, Information Technology, skill development, arts and culture.

Today, 15 projects with cost of more than Rs 265 crore were inaugurated and 14 projects worth Rs 2,194 crore were inaugurated.

The Home Minister said earlier governments used to indulge in politics round the clock, supported armed groups, harassed the public in the name of ransom, kidnapping, drugs trade and bandhs.

But now both the Modi government at the Centre and the N. Biren Singh government in Manipur had together introduced Manipur to “double engine development.”

The Prime Minister has ordered all ministers of the Government of India that in 15 days every minister should be present in one state or the other and organize a district class program. In the last seven and a half years, 1500 ministerial visits have taken place and the Prime Minister has undertaken numerous visits.

Shah said there were many problems, such as land boundary disputes with Bangladesh which were resolved through agreements, the Bru-Reang Agreement, the Bodo Accord, and agreements were negotiated with eight insurgent groups.