Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, hwo is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) face in north east India, has announced that criteria relaxation andconvergence are his mantra for the holistic development of North East India, including the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Addressing media, Rijiju said that population criteria being a major hindrance, he had initiated a convergence of projects of related departments, including DoNER, Tourism and HRD, besides MoHA being the representative of Western parliamentary constituency for maximum benefit, including generation of huge employment to accrue to the local populace.
"The holistic approach to link all central ministry schemes would give speed and facilitate enough fund flow for the development of the strategically sensitive state. But the Centre and state government have to work together to create a conducive atmosphere to achieve the goal," he emphatically said.
The mandate given by the people demands peace and security for development to take deep root, he said adding that he has initiated a unified command that requires close coordination between the state police and central forces to ensure that the state territory was not misused by any disruptive elements.
On the issue of rehabilitation of the border people and the proposed allocation of Rs.5000 to each person living on the border, he clarified that the Rs.920 crores meant for border area development was not enough.
He said that the fund has been sought for infrastructure development. How could one expect the villagers to survive without road link, water, electricity, schools, the basic facilities (Buniyadi subhidhayen) for the border villages?
The allocation would be known after presentation of the Union Budget, he said and clarified that the border areas should not be restricted areas but facilitate tourism, adventure sports through a comprehensive package.
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He also said that the Himalayan mission to develop the entire Himalayan areas in conceptual stage would immensely benefit Arunachal. This included the setting up of AIIMS, IIT, IIM etc with GoAP imitative as the prime minister has announced special central attention for the region while there would be no discrimination in health sector on political ground, he said.
On his second imitative for the sanction of Rs.776 crores by the union agriculture ministry for development of central agricultural universities and research institutes, he said that a central agricultural university was not sufficient to offer manpower for tapping the huge agi-horticulture sector of the NE region. That is why he initiated the proposal.
He also said that "The interlocutor for talks with the NSCN (IM) would be appointed soon, while agreements for talks with many under ground representatives were ready though many had met him personally. The process is being reviewed for taking it to a logical conclusion."
On the recent controversial map of China claiming Arunachal territory coinciding with the visit of Vice President Hamid Ansari to China, he pointed out that Bejing being a sovereign nation cannot be forced to do what we desire. However, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had reacted by saying that China should reciprocate India's 'one China policy' by a 'One India policy'.
On the discrimination of NE people in other cities and inter-state boundary row, he refused to comment as the report of M P Bezbaruah committee was awaited while the Local Boundary Commission is yet to be studied.
Responding to another question if the relaxation of union environment and forest ministry for infrastructure development within 100 km of the international border included major hydropower projects, he quipped: "I have always been against large projects. But if the people of the area want that for development it is the GoAP to take them into confidence and execute.
While thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh for allocating him 70 divisions including border management, disaster management, human rights, foreign division, internal security, police modernisation etc, he lauded Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, his council of ministers and head of NE forces and organisations for giving detailed presentations on all issues during the exhaustive meetings during the day.
"My approach would be to take all stakeholders together and ensure fund flow for police modernisation, new police stations and strengthening of existing PSs for peace to rule", he said and cautioned the GoAP to adhere to rules and guidelines, strict vigilance to prevent corruption to siphon off funds and eat the vitals of development projects. "These issues were dear to my heart".
Rijiju held two rounds of high level meetings after his arrival here on his two-day maiden visit to the state.
In the first meeting, Chief Minister Tuki, assisted by Home Minister Tanga Byaling, Home Parliamentary Secretary Likha Saaya, top ranking GoAP officers led by chief secretary in charge Dharmendra Sarma and DGP Nithyanandam besides top ranking officers of Army, Air Force, BRO, and BSNL defence personnel appraised Rijiju of state's security scenario.
In the second meeting, besides the GoAP officers, Rijiju received feedback from 3 Corps GOC-in-C Lt. Gen. A K Ahuja, 4 Corps GOC-in-C Lt.Gen. S L Narasimhan, Eastern Air Command Air Officer Commanding in Chief Air Marshal R K Jolly, ITBP IG I S Negi, Project Arunank CEE Brigadier Hemanta Kumar Pokhriya, Project Vartak CE S M Logarathan, Project Brahmank CE Anil Kumar, Project Udayak CE Brigadier Arjun Rawat, BSNL CGM (NE-I circle) D P Singh and BSNL CGM (NE-II circle)B C Naagaraju on problems confronting their respective areas.
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