Land Ports Authority played key role in furthering India’s cultural, trade relations with South Asian nations: Amit Shah

North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) [India], May 9 (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) has played a crucial role in furthering India’s cultural and trade relations with all the South Asian countries.

The Union Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone and inaugurating various development projects of the Land Ports Authority of India, responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing border infrastructure in the country.

“The Land Ports Authority is not only an organization that accelerates the economy of India, but it is also the ambassador of India’s message of friendship. It is a very big institution to take forward our cultural relations, and trade relations with all the countries of South Asia, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a new speed, direction, and dimensions since 2016,” Shah said.

Shah went on to add that India’s border security policy is clear.

“We want strong infrastructure in the border areas. The facilities of welfare schemes have reached the villages in the border areas like the rest of the country and we are also working towards improving the connectivity of the villages,” he said.

Highlighting the culture and languages shared by India and Bangladesh, he said that no one can snap the ties, developed between both countries.

“No one can break the relations between Bangladesh and India. Both nations are living on the basis of the same culture for thousands of years. India has always played a friendly crucial role in the history of Bangladesh since its birth,” Shah said, adding that India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has also made a very golden contribution to the freedom struggle of Bangladesh.

During the Home Minister’s address, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Union MoS for Home Affairs Nishith Pramanik, Union MoS Shantanu Thakur, LPAI chief Aditya Mishra, other senior delegates were present.

Amit Shah’s day-long visit to West Bengal came on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Remembering him as ‘Kaviguru’, Shah said, “Today is the birth anniversary of Kaviguru Ravindranath Thakur. Kaviguru is the only person in the whole world who has got the privilege of writing the national anthem of two countries. He penned the national anthnem of Bangladesh along with that of India.”

Earlier in the day, he visited the ancestral house of Tagore in Kolkata and offered floral tributes at the Thakurbari Jorasanko area this morning.

Before leaving for West Bengal on Monday night to attend Tagore’s birth anniversary celebration, Shah had also said that the bard’s soulful literature remains an ethereal voice that will continue to inspire generations with his benevolence.