Tripura deprived under Congress, Communist rule, now developed: BJP

New Delhi: Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday said that under the leadership and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party is moving ahead to fulfil the dream of developed Tripura.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, along with Public Policy Research Centre Director Sumit Bhasin, where the Centre's research report on public welfare and development works done in Tripura under the BJP government was released, he said that Congress ruled the country for 60 years but never gave prominence to the northeast in the national agenda.

"Congress made 'Look East Policy' but never tried to connect it with the ground reality. Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed the policy to 'Act East' and made the northeast region the gateway to the country's development," he said.

Sonowal alleged that during the Congress and Communist rule, Tripura was a "deprived state", but "now, under the leadership and guidance of PM Modi, the double engine government of the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken Tripura towards a prosperous, happy and developed Tripura. PM gave the mantra of HIRA for the development of North East i.e. Highways, Internet, Railways, and Airways."

The BJP cited the accomplishments and multitude of initiatives performed by the party government in the last five years, which completely transformed the state "by successfully ushering an inclusive, development-oriented and corruption-free governance".

On the report "Difference That We Made In Tripura", of PPRC, Bhasin said that since 2018, the BJP-led government has left no stone unturned to ensure electricity connections to all remaining un-electrified households in rural as well as urban areas to achieve universal household electrification, while also constructing over 4.53 lakh household toilets since October 2, 2014, and providing over 4 lakh rural households with tap water connections since August 15, 2019.

In the field of education, the BJP established an IIIT, the National Law University, and the Centre for National Forensics Science University in Agartala, he said.

Tripura augmented health infrastructure by increasing the number of Primary Health Centres from 83 in 2018 to 117 in 2022, increasing the cadre strength of Tripura Health Services, and expanding the 24*7 ambulance services.

The BJP also highlighted the massive infrastructure development in the state such as 22,787 km of roads being built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the construction of the International Terminal at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and Maitry Setu over the Feni River.