ITANAGAR, Nov 13: Chief Minister Pema Khandu has called for good planning to harness the vast natural resources of the state.
“Though the State has abundant natural resources but due to poor planning we are still unable to tap these resources to our advantage,” Pema said at a function organized by Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) and Sustainable Development Forum of Arunachal Pradesh (SDFA) here on Sunday night.
Strong political will is the need of the hour to bring in desired change in formulating programme and policies in a more holistic way, he said.
Pema said that there was a big gap in understanding sustainable activities in the mountain region till date but expressed hope that with the formation of IMI, such issues would be resolved soon.
He invited IMI to educate the government officers and youths through seminars, to do in depth research and come up with state specific programmes for the Himalayan state as it has many challenges of its own.
While assuring to empower IMI through proper funding, he asked the chief secretary to examine the proposal submitted by IMI and also to incorporate the proposal of Arunachal Pradesh Bio-Resource Development Mission.
SDFA chairperson and secretary of IMI Fantry Mein Jaiswal highlighted the initiatives and activities taken by IMI.
She informed that IMI had initiated independent platforms for discussing mountain’s development – the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) and Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS) which brings together states from IHR on a common platform to discuss their issues.
On the occasion, Head of State Horticulture Research and Development Institute Egam Basar highlighted the detail activities to be taken up under the proposed Arunachal Pradesh Bio-Resource Development Mission.
Education Minister Honchun Ngandam, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary, Art & Culture Minister Dr Mohesh Chai, State BJP President Tapir Gao, Parliamentary Secretaries Zingnu Namchoom, Thesam Pongte, Laisam Simai and Govt. officers headed by Chief Secretary Satya Gopal, Development Commissioner (Finance), Ashish Kundra and Secretary to Chief Minister Sonam Chombay were also present on the occasion.
