Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 11 Mar: Governor BD Mishra on Friday exuded confidence that, with the support of the legislators and with the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, the government would be able to make Arunachal Pradesh an economic growth engine of the Northeast and a gateway to South East Asia.
“I am confident that our double engine government will emerge as the fulcrum for ‘Act East’ policy of the Centre,” he said in his customary address to the members during the inaugural day of the five-day budget session.
The governor exhorted the members of the state legislative assembly to have a pan-Arunachal view and vision, besides leading by example and ensuring equitable, non-discriminatory, sustainable and consistent development across the state.
“Let this budget session be guided by six pillars – investing in health sector, investment in human capital, Atmanirbhar Arunachal Pradesh, synergy and convergence, governance reforms and prudent financial management and environment protection and climate resilient infrastructure,” he said.
“It goes to the singular credit of our government that all developmental schemes and all our committed liabilities like salaries, wages, pensions, loan repayment, have gone on without any default,” he added.
“The focus area of the chief minister has been government process reengineering for administrative efficiency and transparency. The 100 percent implementation of e-Office in civil secretariat has been a major achievement this year,” he said.
He added that, taking the reform initiative forward, the state has also signed MoUs with the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, the Northeast Space Application Centre, Shillong, and the National Institute of Smart Governance, Hyderabad, for improving the capacity of governance in the state.
“Under ease of doing business, the state government has developed a single-window portal for providing all clearances, licenses, permits, NOCs, renewals and auto-renewals,” he said, and complimented Khandu for taking up the initiative of e-Pragati to review the implementation of schemes and programmes.
He appealed to the members to “usher in IT” to improve their interface with the citizens, in order to eliminate the scope for misuse of discretion, delays, and corruption.
“The Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board has emerged as a major success story through which the state has ensured merit-based recruitment in Group C category. This year our SSB has conducted many examinations; consequently, the state government has been able to provide employment to 1,162 persons,” Mishra informed.
On the education sector, the governor said that the state government is taking up digitisation of the education sector and launched the new integrated web portal which is equipped with innovative modules such as ‘Know your teacher’ and ‘Register your issue and grievances’.
“The first e-learning studio is being developed, which will provide education to GSS’ and GHSS’ through virtual mode. A state level task force for implementation of the National Education Policy has been notified and webinars are being held to disseminate the policy to all the stakeholders,” he said.
The governor further said that, to promote learning in the mother tongue, the education department has come up with books in Nyishi, Wancho, Galo, Tagin, Kaman, Taraon, Idu and Tangsa languages, and that more tribal languages will be covered in the near future.
The governor said that, “as a society, the people need to work collectively to get rid of the drug menace, so that the youngsters don’t fall into this vicious trap.” He suggested channelling the energy of the youths “through investigating significantly in creating sports infrastructure throughout the state,” referring to the notification of the Arunachal Pradesh Policy on Psychoactive Substance, 2021.
He further urged the legislators to “usher leadership in their respective areas to get rid of the bandh culture,” saying that the “the menace would throttle our development.”
The governor added that the state government has resolutely committed itself to a “climate change resilient and responsive Arunachal Pradesh in tune with PM’s Panchamrut commitment given to global community at United Nations Climate Change Conference at Glasgow to usher in green development.”
“My government’s Pakke Declaration is the first of its kind sub-national commitment to climate responsive action, which we intend to take through the five broad panch dhara elements and the 75 strategies underpinning them,” he said.
Referring to the ambitious Airgun Surrender Abhiyan, the governor said that the mission got a major boost when it featured in the 84th edition of the Mann Ki Baat programme of the prime minister, where the effort was appreciated by him.
“Providing front-end subsidy to the farmers instead of normal practice of granting back-end subsidy has been a bold step by our government placing tremendous faith on our hardworking farmers. I am happy to inform that till date more than 5,000 farmers have been sanctioned subsidy and loans under this scheme and the response we received from the farmers was overwhelming,” he added.
He said also that developing entrepreneurship among the youths has been the priority of the government.
“Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Swavalmban Yojana, the flagship scheme, has been effectively instrumental in job creation and creation of valuable assets across different sectors in various districts. This scheme has provided assistance to 401 entrepreneurs, converting them from job seekers to job providers. This is the first scheme in which credit is being provided front-end,” he said.
The governor congratulated the government on the completion of the work on the 600 mw Kameng project.
“The work on Subansiri Lower project is going on at full speed and the two units with 500 megawatt capacity are expected to be commissioned this year,” he said.
“My government has taken up ‘golden jubilee border village illumination programme’, under which standalone, off-grid micro-hydels shall be commissioned in the remote areas close to international borders. This shall ensure meeting up of the power demand in remote corners of the state for both civilians and the security forces,” he disclosed.
The governor further informed that the government would initiate carbon credit trading from this year and accordingly, out of the total hydropower plants in the state, 98 micro, mini and small hydropower plants, with a combined installed capacity of 50 mw, have been considered for carbon credits registration.
“Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, we have completed construction of 11,498 kms of road and 96 long-span bridges, providing all-weather roads to 1,273 habitations till date,” Mishra said.
The governor further informed that, under the regional connectivity scheme, the state government has taken up the task of establishing heliport facilities in Ziro, Daporijo, Tuting, Walong, Itanagar and Yingkiong to enable faster and reliable access to these remote locations.
“The state has planned to achieve the target of providing household connections to all the habitations under the Jal Jeevan Mission by 2023, a year ahead of the national target. In its pursuit, in the last financial year, 65,121 households were covered. The present coverage is 52 percent and by the end of March 2022, we shall take this to 70 percent,” he said.
He also asked the members to “preserve equality as an integral part of Arunachal’s culture and ensure that the girl child gets more than deserved care in all fields, including health, education and social welfare benefits.” (With inputs from PTI & Raj Bhavan)
