'Take off Italian glasses to see vikas in India': Amit Shah's dig at Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, May 22: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is currently in the UK, and said the Wayanad MP must take off his Italian glasses and look at the development work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Pema Khandu in Arunachal Pradesh.

Shah inaugurated and laid the foundation for 40 projects worth around Rs 1,000 crore during the day.

"Congress leaders ask what happened in eight years, these people are awake with their eyes closed. Rahul baba must take off his Italian glasses and look at the development work done by PM Modi and Chief Minister Pema Khandu," Shash said.

"A lot of work was done in the last eight years in Arunachal to improve infrastructure, strengthen law and order and boost the tourism sector. The work that has been done by Pema Khandu and Narendra Modi in eight years has not happened in 50 years," Amit Shah said.

Shah said that when Chief Minister Pema Khandu assumed charge, the state's annual budget was only Rs 12,500 crore, but it has now increased to Rs 26,000 crore. Similarly, the state's GDP has also tripled to Rs 30,000 crore from Rs 10,000 crore.

"Around 3,000 villages have 4G connectivity while plans are afoot to expand it to 1,680 more villages," he said.

Under the border village illumination programme, work to provide street lighting to 700 villages is underway while construction of foot tracks in border areas is also on, he said.

"When the country celebrates 100 years of Independence, the states in Northeast will be at par in terms of development with those in other parts of the country," he said.

"For PM Modi, development should begin with Arunachal Pradesh. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he had instructed that the vaccines should first be provided to Arunachal Pradesh and now the state is free from the infection," the Union home minister said.

Shah, who laid the foundation of a 51-feet-bronze statue of sage Parshuram at Parshuram Kund in Lohit district on Saturday evening, said that the site has an immense potential to attract tourists.

Shah said that the NDA government had started development initiatives in the state and now it has good road, railway, air and digital connectivity and soon, Itanagar will get a greenfield airport.

He said that projects worth Rs 950 crore under the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR), Rs 835-crore worth projects under North East Council (NEC) and Rs 825-worth initiatives under DoNER Ministry are operational in the state.

After the programme, he chaired a closed-door security review meeting with army and paramilitary forces and attended a banquet with the officers before leaving for Delhi.