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3 min readGuwahatiFeb 21, 2026 04:59 AM IST
Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Minister Atul Bora in Nathanpur on Friday. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah formally launched the second phase of the central government’s Vibrant Villages programme in a village on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam’s Cachar district on Friday.
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“In Barak Valley and all other border districts, in every village, the work of providing all kinds of facilities is going to be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through Vibrant Village 2. There was a time when border villages were considered the country’s last villages. They were also the last from the perspective of development, employment, electricity connectivity and education. Modi ji had in Vibrant Villages 1 decided that border villages are not the last villages but India’s first villages. And because of this, this village of ours too is going to be a first village,” he said, addressing a gathering at the village.
Shah is in Assam for a two-day visit, and began his programmes in Southern Assam’s Barak Valley, where Cachar is located.
Nearly three years ago, in April 2023, he had launched the first phase of the Vibrant Villages programme in the Indo-China border village of Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh. In that first phase, 662 villages had been identified for comprehensive development in 19 districts along the northern border in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh.
The second phase that was launched on Friday, with a total outlay of Rs 6839 crore till the financial year 2028-2029, aims to cover a total of 1,954 villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Shah said.
He said 140 of these villages are located in Assam. “In this, many plans are there which include security-related programmes, scheme saturation programmes and connectivity programmes,” he said.
Referring to the upcoming assembly elections in the state, he again emphasised the BJP’s poll plank of standing against illegal immigration into the state.
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“Our Assam was troubled by two problems. One problem was that infiltrators were snatching away the rights of Assamese people. Should infiltrators be stopped or not? Congress governments had left our borders open for infiltrators. Infiltrators kept entering Assam, and by snatching away Assam’s youths’ employment, the grains of the poor, the land in villages, there was an effort to change the demography here. But Assam’s people had made a BJP government 10 years ago, and in the first five years, we worked to stop the infiltrators. And in the next five years, our Himanta Biswa Sarma has worked to remove infiltrators by vacating the lakhs of bighas of land captured by them… Now elections are coming for the third time, make a BJP government, I promise you that we will search for every infiltrator who had entered during Congress’s rule and send them back to where they came from,” he said.
Sukrita Baruah is a Principal Correspondent for The Indian Express, based in Guwahati. From this strategic hub, she provides comprehensive, ground-level coverage of India's North East, a region characterized by its complex ethnic diversity, geopolitical significance, and unique developmental challenges. Expertise and Experience Ethnic & Social Dynamics: Deep-dive coverage of regional conflicts (such as the crisis in Manipur) and peace-building efforts. Border & Geopolitics: Tracking developments along India’s international borders and their impact on local communities. Governance & Policy: Reporting on state elections, tribal council decisions, and the implementation of central schemes in the North East. Specialized Education Background: Prior to her current role, Sukrita was a dedicated Education Correspondent for The Indian Express in Delhi. This experience provided her with a sharp analytical lens for: Policy Analysis: Evaluating the National Education Policy (NEP) and university-level reforms. Student Affairs: Covering high-stakes stories regarding campus politics, national entrance exams, and the challenges within the primary and secondary education sectors. ... Read More
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