Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated a circuit bench and laid the foundation for widening a national highway in northern West Bengal and flayed the Congress, Communists and Trinamool Congress for being insensitive and unresponsive to the region's development while helming the state.

Modi laid the foundation stone for the 41.7 km four-lane 31D National Highway between Alipurduar district's Falakata to Salsalabari under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' - a centrally-sponsored and funded road and highways project of the Central government.

"When the highway project costing nearly Rs 1,000 crore would be complete, coming to Siliguri will become more convenient. The rail and air connectivity between Jalpaiguri and adjoining areas will also improve a lot. The Centre is working to improve the connectivity in the region that would make your life easier," Modi said.

"The Central government has also approved the construction of Asian Highway 2 and 14, connecting the borders of Nepal and Bangladesh. The work is going on," he said.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated a new circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court in Jalpaiguri, fulfilling a six-decade-old demand of the people of north Bengal. He said the people of the region will no more have to waste their time and money for going to Kolkata for cases related to the High Court.

"The delay in the circuit bench which has been long overdue, shows that be it the Congress, CPI-M or the Trinamool Congress (which ran the state governemnts at various times) none of them are concerned about your problems. The Calcutta High Court took the first step for this circuit bench 20 years back. The cabinet approved it nearly 13-14 years back. Still it took this long to fulfil your dream," he said.

"The insensitive state governments have no idea how much trouble the poor people of the area have faced even in small cases," he said.

"You all are witness as to how the Siliguri Munciipal Corporation is being treated. The law and order situation in north Bengal has deteriorated. No new business initiatives have been taken. The youths are being forced to leave the place as there is no opportunity," Modi added.

--IANS

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