The Arunachal Times - Archives

PR leaders appeals state govt to bring respite to calamity hit Dibang valley

Correspondent

ROING, June 12: All the Panchayat members of Dibang Valley made an earnest appeal to the state government to act immediately to bring respite to the people of calamity-hit district.

Describing the misery of the people of Dibang Valley due to lack of essential commodities including life saving drugs, Amunge Mili ASM Anini regretted that “during the three months of hardship, the MLA and the ministers did not feel the need to visit the calamity hit district.” They should have immediately assessed and monitor the disaster hit district and addressed the crisis with adequate relief material”, the ASM added.

Cost of Dal, Sugar, Salt, Flour, biscuit, candle have soared and other essential commodities is beyond the reach of common people as the entire shops and makeshifts have been closed due to halt in the supply of the commodities. Despite all efforts by the district administration to make available the essential commodities, situation is far from over.

Ration and passenger sorties could not land in Anini owing to bad weather condition.

Meanwhile, the lone district medical at Anini is totally crippled due to acute shortage of life saving drugs and power. “The Medicines provided by MUSKAN, Eri Tayu and Zilla Chairperson Empi Meya for interim management few weeks back got exhausted. Basic life saving drugs including Antibiotic Syrup, Anti-malaria injection, Gastric, Anti-Diarrhoeal, Okytrician tablets are out of stock. In addition to these, power crisis has also hit the heath delivery system. The worst is that candles are used in labour room in absence of electricity,” rued Dr. Muchu Mihu MO.

DC take stock of development activities, stress on sincere service of officials

SEPPA, June 12: Newly posted East Kameng District Deputy Commissioner Tope Bam called on the Govt. officers to perform their duties sincerely for all round development of the district. He was addressing the officers in his first coordination meeting with the HoDs of the various departments at his office chamber yesterday.

Bam gave special emphasis on the law and order problem saying without a congenial atmosphere, the development of the district is almost impossible. He asked East Kameng SP to keep on law and order intact so that the developmental schemes being implemented by the govt. are not disturbed.

With our sincere effort the pre-notion of people towards Seppa as a disturbed district could be proved wrong, Bam added while asking the SP to depute the force for regular patrolling of the township. He however cautioned the police not to be arbitrary while discharging the duties.

Asking all the HoDs to direct their subordinated staffs to stay in their respective posting place, Bam said that though there is accommodation problem in the circle, all the officer should perform their duties as much as they can. DC is only a team captain, all the govt officials has their own responsibilities and one cannot run away from it. He further warned the officer that stern action shall be taken against the officers who do not perform their duties sincerely. He also asked the HoDs to bring to the notice of the DC about the matters that cannot be solved in the office.

Giving special emphasis on the education, Bam directed DDSE to inspect all the schools in the district and to direct all teachers to stay in their respective posting place.

The HoDs and the representatives from the various departments present on the meeting submitted the detail report of various developmental activities being undertaken in their respective departments and those who do not do so were asked to submit as early as possible. The matters pertaining to health and sanitation, the PDS system, electricity problem and development in other departments were discussed at length in the meeting. DIPRO

Tree plantation marks NCP foundation day

ITANAGAR, June 12: As a part of the week-long celebration of the 12th NCP Foundation day in Arunachal, District Nationalist Student Congress (NSC) members headed by its President Taba Katu and Teshi Sony took part in plantation drive and planted 150 saplings near Dikrong Bridge Doimukh with help of Forest Range Office today. Meanwhile, Nationalist Youth Congress state unit decided to organize tree plantation program on 15th of this month at Nirjuli-I village on Pare River bank as part of the week-long celebration.

648 newly commissioned officers pass out from IMA

Arunachal Governor asks cadets to face challenges

DEHRADUN, June 12: Arunachal Pradesh Governor Gen JJ Singh today inspected the passing out parade of Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. 648 gentlemen cadets including 23 foreign gentlemen Cadets from friendly countries and 23 Gentlemen Cadets from Assam Rifles passed out of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

The chief guest of the occasion, the Governor congratulated all the young officers for choosing this noble profession and asked them to keep updated and to be ready and vigilant to face all types of challenges.

Gen Singh also inspected a guard of honour given by the Gentlemen Cadets and Army helicopters showered petals. The Sword of Honour, the most coveted recognition that a Gentleman Cadet aspires to possess went to ACA Gaurav Hridaya, who is also an active sportsman. Gold Medal for standing first in the overall order of merit went to BUO Sumit S Lahane. The Medals were presented by the Chief Guest to other awardees including Silver Medal 2nd in order of Merit ACA Gaurav Hridaya and Bronze Medal 3rd in order of Merit BCA Yogendra Kathayat

The Passing Out Parade was witnessed by Military and Civil Dignitaries, the family members, relatives and the friends of the newly commissioned officers. During two days, parents and relatives of newly commissioned officers witnessed Wreath Laying Ceremony at War Memorial, End of Term Indoor Club Exhibition, Musical Evening at the Khetarpal Auditorium and Multi Activity Display at Tons Polo Ground of Indian Military Academy. Indeed a befitting farewell to the Passing Out Course!!

Lt Gen Rajinder Singh Sujlana, PVSM,AVSM,VSM, Commandant, Indian military Academy accompanied the Reviewing Officer. The parade marched on the tunes of `Col Bogey’ and `Sare Jahan Se Achacha’. PRO, Rajbhawan

Financial Inclusion - Banks need to be pro-active

Dr. B.G. Mukhopadhyay

Financial Inclusion has suddenly become the talk of the town. This is quite natural as the Government of India is seriously thinking to reach out to those unreached sections who have been by-passed from the financial services offered by the Banks in terms of savings, credit, remittances and insurance services. It is paradoxical that a sizable chunk of population in the urban areas and metros enjoy the facilities of ATM, Internet Banking, Credit and Debit Cards, online money transfers, etc. while a large majority of population in the rural areas do not have even the basic minimum banking facilities. This is unacceptable and quite rightly, the Government of India appointed a committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan, the eminent economist and former Governor of RBI to rectify the situation and to stem the growing divide between the urban and rural population in terms of financial exclusion. The Committee has gone into the depth to find out the reasons for financial exclusion and has recommended what needs to be done differently to check this growing divide of providing financial services between the urban and rural areas.

The Committee has defined the financial inclusion “as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost.” By taking this criteria, the committee has identified that 73% of farmer households in the country have no access to formal sources of credit. The situation is far more precarious in the North Eastern States and in Arunachal 5 districts viz., Changlang, Dibang Valley, East Kameng, Lohit and Tirap districts have more than 98% financial exclusion. This is not a happy situation after more than two decades of bank nationalization and RBI’s strong directives on priority sector lending.

There are different views as to how the financial inclusion can be achieved. The initial idea was that opening of ‘No Frills Bank Account’ is probably the objective of financial inclusion. Accordingly, the banks were declaring those districts as totally financially included districts where all the eligible poor have opened the no frills account. However, Rangarajan Committee has totally discarded that narrow view of financial inclusion and it had indicated that comprehensive financial inclusion would be to provide a holistic set of services encompassing a basic no frills account for making and receiving payments, a savings product suited to their (poor household) cash flows, small loans and overdraft facilities, money transfer facilities alongwith insurance, both life and non-life, etc. And logically, this should be linked up with inclusive growth as envisaged under 11th Five Year Plan.

If we take those parameters as defined by Rangarajan Committee, we observe that there is a long way to go to reach that desired goal even though the Committee has suggested that at least 50% of the excluded rural households should be reached under financial inclusion by 2012 and the rest of the excluded households in the rural area by 2015.

In Arunachal Pradesh, we had a series of seminars and workshops at State and District levels organised by NABARD and it was well attended by all the stakeholders. The action plans have been drawn up and all corners have shown their commitments to achieve the financial inclusion. However, the movement of financial inclusion is yet to catch up in full scale considering the extent of financial exclusion in the state. The credit-deposit ratio in the state is barely 38.35% as on December 31, 2010. In the last year, it was barely 12.92% and year before last, it was hardly 42.29% whereas, the RBI norms stipulate 60% credit-deposit ratio. The low population density in the hilly terrains of Arunachal or elsewhere do not favour the branch expansion policy of the banks. This is where a creative solution from the bankers is urgently needed to address this issue. Fortunately, there is alternative solution through SHGs, Joint Liability Groups and using Farmer’s Club as essential conduit to reach out to those unreached section. Incidentally, the response from the bankers is still lukewarm and much more pro-active response is needed to bridge the gap of financial exclusion. The NGOs in the State are actively collaborating with NABARD to take the SHG movement to a new high and the Government of Arunachal Pradesh has also launched micro-Finance Vision to reach those excluded section through Self-help groups but the poor SHG members are finding it difficult even to open their savings bank account, what to talk about bank loan. The savings of poor SHGs can leverage bank credit for micro-enterprise and other agriculture and allied activities. The experience of Andhra Pradesh can be a trend-setter for the entire country and even for outside world. With an amount of Rs.900 Crores seed capital of the SHGs, the groups could leverage Rs.26,000 crores bank credit and over a period of eight years, the linear growth of SHGs from 2.3 lakhs to 9.5 lakh is not a small achievement by any standard. Moreover, SHGs are able to access all types of financial services being offered by the banks. This is an example worth emulating for all of us who want financial inclusion to be successful in Arunachal or elsewhere in the country.

(The author of this article is General Manager, NABARD, Arunachal Pradesh Regional Office and the views are his own.)

In-service training for agri officers held

ITANAGAR, June 12: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Deomali in Tirap district organized a three days training programme from 10 -12 for the extension functionaries of agricultural department on field “Crop Cultivation “ at Khonsa. 17 participants from the different agriculture offices of the district attended the programme.

Dr. Narendra Kumar, Programme Coordinator, KVK in his inaugural address explained the gathering about different activities of KVK in the district and highlighted the objectives of the training. G. Hocha, District Agricultural Officer, who was chief guest of the function, urged the extension workers to abstract full benefit from the training to make the Tirap district self sufficient in food crop production.

Simanta Kumar Kalita, subject matter specialist (Agronomy) delivered lectures on “Recent Advances on Field Crop Cultivation” and “Cultivation of Quality Protein Maize (QPM)” in detail.

Through PowerPoint presentation, he brought to light various effective and scientific agro- technologies to improve the cultivation of some important field crops. Integrated nutrient and pest management, problem and prospects of field crop cultivation in the district were some of the important areas discussed very fruitfully with the participants, according to an official release.

Take up more development: APMTF

ITANAGAR, June 12: Arunachal Public Motors Transport Federation (APMTF), East Kameng District Unit, while welcoming the new Deputy Commissioner appealed the DC to take up more development activities like electrification, water supply, road communication and transport system in its township beautification movement.

Blue Pine school students excel

ITANAGAR, June 12: Blue Pine Residential English School, Ziro has excelled in the recently declared CBSE Class X result.

Out of 28 students appeared, 15 students scored above 90% marks, 9 students scored above 80% and 4 students scored above 70% marks with AI marks in all subject by Sherin Lisa Antony and Tage Ani.

Arunachal to participate in Santosh Trophy

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Senior Football Team will participate in the 64th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy to be held at Kolkata, West Bengal from July 15 to August eight.

The selection trial camp would held at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Naharlagun from June 24 to pick players for the championship. Interested players may contact coach Nada Apa (09436223527) for details.

DC reviews construction of steel bridge over Kundil River

ITANAGAR: Lower Dibang Valley deputy commissioner-cum-District Level Monitoring Committee chairman Y W Ringu visited the on-going work of the scheme “Construction of Steel Trass Bridge over Kundil River between Iduli and Kabang village on June 10. The scheme is being executed by RWD under RIDF.

Ringu, who was accompanied by DLMC members, panchayat leaders and Govt. officers urged the RWD officials to ensure completion of work within the targeted time. She also requested the officials to take initiative for construction of a temporary bamboo bridge for alternative transportation of nearby villagers till the completion of the bridge.

An amount of Rs 109 lakh has already been sanctioned by the Govt for the construction of the bridge, 90 per cent of the works have been completed and the bridge is likely to be completed by September next, informed the RWD officials to visiting dignitaries. However, they informed that a revised allocation of additional amount of Rs 91 lakh has been placed to the Govt for early completion of work. The PRI members expressed their satisfaction over the progress of work and informed that the DLMC members would visit the bridge again after completion.

Yachuli bandh

ITANAGAR, June 12: The All Yachuli Students Union has decided to call a 12-hour Yachuli constituency bandh on June 17 next in support of its demand on the establishment of the proposed NIT at Yachuli in Lower Subansiri district.

The union in a release said it had submitted an ultimatum to the education minister regarding the same but the government has not paid any heed to the ultimatum.

Closing time fixed

ITANAGAR, June 12: Local wine owners/sellers within Nirjuli market area have fixed 8 pm as closing time of all wine shops within the market area. The decision was taken in a general meeting of wine sellers today in order to maintain proper law and order situation, said chairman of the meeting and general secretary of Nirjuli Market Welfare Committee in a release today. The violation of the decision will invite legal action, the release added.