Improved ties with Bangladesh will help improve Northeast: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Sep 9: Improved relations with Bangladesh and exchanges of enclaves were revolutionary and path-breaking decisions for ensuring overall development of the entire Northeastern region, BJP chief Amit Shah said here today. "A big change is certain to come in the Northeast of India in next 10 to 15 years. Just by one stroke and exchanging enclaves, the Narendra Modi Government has taken a giant step for development of Northeast," BJP chief Amit Shah said addressing a FICCI session here. He lashed out at the previous Congress regime for what he said creating a situation under which western and Northern India was turned into manufacturing hub, while eastern India had turned "consumers". "This discrepancy has been addressed now," he said. The Modi Government has also taken steps to improve relations with other countries in the region. "International roads are being built and new agreements are being inked. These will prove immense helpful," he said. Referring to demonetisation and few tough decisions, he said the Government does not believe in taking steps which are merely populists. "We have not joined policy decision making process with the vote banks. May we will have to pay some political prices....We might have suffered some losses also. But the government has taken firm stand to lead the country's economic system on a forward march," he said the note-ban was one such decision. "But I am firm about one thing, due to note ban, the size of country's formal economy has increased. Everyone has to admit that. All money wherever they are, have now come back to the system," Mr Shah said. The BJP chief said while the tax payers net has enhanced from 3.7-crore in 2014 to 6.3-crore in 2016-17, the Government has also taken steps to allow funds flowing into India through the convenient Mauritius-Singapore-Cyprus route to avoid paying capital gain taxes. "There was a legal cover to something which was illegal, we have stopped this," he said. UNI