PM Modi to visit Northeast amidst protests against Citizenship Bills

GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday either inaugurate or lay the foundation stone of a series of projects in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura during his whirlwind tour of the Northeast.

His visit will coincide with angry protests in the region against the Centre’s move to get the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in Parliament to grant Indian citizenship to immigrants belonging to six persecuted communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Congress in Arunachal said it would hold a peaceful demonstration-cum-protest rally against the Bill in state capital Itanagar. Some organisations in Assam, opposed to the Bill, might also try to stage similar protests when the PM attends programmes in the state. 

According to official sources, Modi will reach Arunachal capital Itanagar on Saturday morning. He will lay the foundation stone of a Greenfield airport at Hollongi near Itanagar and a tunnel in Sela which will reduce travel time to the India-China border town of Tawang by an hour. The airport will not only boost the region’s connectivity and economic growth, it will also be of strategic importance.

He will launch a new dedicated DD channel for the state “DD Arun Prabha” and dedicate the 110 MW Pare Hydroelectric Plant to the nation. He will also lay the foundation stone for a permanent campus of Film and Television Institute of India at Jote and inaugurate the upgraded Tezu Airport.

In Guwahati, Modi will lay the foundation stone of North East Gas Grid which will lead to uninterrupted supply of natural gas across the Northeast. He will inaugurate a gas processing plant in Tinsukia and an LPG capacity augmentation of mounted storage vessel in Guwahati. He will also lay the foundation stone of NRL bio-refinery at Numaligarh and the 729-km long Barauni-Guwahati gas pipeline.

In Tripura, he will dedicate the Garjee-Belonia railway line to the nation by unveiling a plaque. He will also inaugurate the new complex of the Tripura Institute of Technology and unveil the statue of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport in Agartala.