NAHARLAGUN, 27 Oct: All the staffers of the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) deputy commissioner’s office have been shifted to the mini-secretariat here to assess the overall losses incurred by the shop owners in the fire accident that reduced the daily market here to ashes in the wee hours of Tuesday.
It is learnt that about 300 shopkeepers and owners have received Rs 3,500 each as a relief measure through direct benefit transfer. It is also learnt that “individual assessment of losses of properties” will be carried out on 31 October.
On Thursday, disaster management adviser and MLA Thanpho Wangnaw visited 700 plus shopkeepers at the daily market here. Wangnaw, who was accompanied by Disaster Management Secretary Dani Salu, told the shopkeepers that “the government is ready to compensate all the individuals who are entitled to compensation.”
ICR DC Talo Potom, who is carrying out the compensation process, informed that a loss assessment committee, led by ADC Jiken Bomjen, has been constituted, and it is “in the process of receiving applications and uploading in the PFMS portal to provide immediate relief assistance to the victims as per the SDRF norms.”
Responding to reporters, Wangnaw said that “discussions are underway with the government to install hydrants and increase the number of fire station vehicles.”
On being asked if there are any plans to establish fire stations in and around Nirjuli and Doimukh, the MLA said that “the work is under process and the state government is initiating on it.”
Earlier, Itanagar MLA Techi Kaso had informed this daily that the shopkeepers would be temporarily shifted to the helipad area to put up their businesses. However, Wangnaw said on Thursday that “unless the compensation and assessment process is done, we cannot say anything regarding the shifting.”
It is learnt that a notice has been served to the shopkeepers to vacate the shops to enable construction of a permanent shopping complex in the area, under the smart city project.
However, when contacted, Itanagar Smart City Development Corporation Ltd CEO Dahey Sangno said that no notice was served to the shopkeepers, and that “it was just a part of a discussion that they would be shifted to a temporary location near the helipad area, to which the shopkeepers also agreed.”
He informed also that the daily market was expected to be shifted within two months, anyway.
“The idea of constructing a permanent shopping complex, replacing the daily market, has been there since more than a decade,” an executive member of the Arunachal Chamber of Commerce & Industries said. (With DIPRO input)
