BJP slams Congress over 'neglect,' says Modi delivered on Manipur railway promise

New Delhi: Releasing a video from the 1990s of a woman from Manipur asking then railways minister George Fernandes when will Manipur have a railway line, the BJP said that the dream was finally realised in 2022 when a goods train reached Imphal in the Modi regime and that the Congress had ignored the region for years.

“During an interview in 1990, a woman from Manipur asked then Railway Minister George Fernandes when the railway system would be established in Manipur. At that time, there wasn't even a railway reservation office in Manipur. George Fernandes opened a reservation office in Imphal and conducted a survey for the railway line,” the BJP’s handle posted on X, adding that the Congress government, which remained in power at the center for a long time, took no concrete steps in this direction.

“Even Congress’s then Defense Minister A.K. Antony stated in Parliament that railway and road development along the border was not carried out so that enemy countries could not use it,” the post said.

The post further said that In 2014, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, “large-scale infrastructure development began in the border areas”. “Now, the railway landscape in the Northeast is changing … For the first time since independence, in 2022, a goods train reached Manipur. Now, all remote areas of Manipur and Mizoram are also connected to the railway network,” the post further added.

The prime minister made his first visit to Manipur since the violence broke out two years ago, last weekend, and announced a slew of developmental projects. This includes the new Manipur Police headquarters built at a cost of ₹101 crore at Mantripukhri in Imphal and a civil secretariat constructed at a cost of ₹538 crore. In Kuki-majority area Churachandpur, Modi laid the foundation stone for various projects, including the drainage and asset management improvement project worth ₹3,647 crore and the Manipur Infotech Development (MIND) project at ₹550 crore.