Modi calls for value-addition to create jobs

Dibrugarh: Seeking to create more jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for value-addition of natural resources and creation of ancillary units that will help reduce imports as well as generate employment.

Inaugurating a Rs 10,000-crore petrochemical plant that will make raw material for manufacturing plastic and a wax making unit at an oil refinery here, Modi said his government's priority is to develop Northeast as it believes in "all-round development" of the nation.

He exhorted the youth of the states to take advantage of these two projects and set up small factories that will add value and generate wealth for the country.

"Today two major projects are being inaugurated in Dibrugarh. This is important because it will lead to value addition of natural resources and generate many employment opportunities for the youth," he said.

The Brahamputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd was conceived as part of the Assam peace accord signed during the tenure of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and its foundation stone was laid in 2007 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Modi rued about delays in first conceiving the projects, then in announcing and foundation laying and further delays in completion, all of which result in cost escalation.

"I should not have got the opportunity of inaugurating the project if this unit was set up 25 years back by the then Prime Minister, he said.

Many jobs would have been created and there would have been an atmosphere of 'Sarbananda', he said in an apparent reference to the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate and Union sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

"But, I sometime feel it is my good fortune to do all these good work (inaugurating projects started previously)," he said.

Prime Minister said his government has unshackled several stalled projects across the country and he has been personally interacting with state chief secretaries on a monthly basis to monitor progress and remove hurdles.