Arunachal CM stressed on need to foster Army-civilian cordial

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has stressed on the need to foster cordial relations between the Army and the state government.
During a meeting with General Officer
Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command Lieutenant General, Praveen Bakshi, when the later called on him in his office yesterday night, Pul said that border security has been accorded top priority by the state government who is also concerned about the welfare of defence personnel as they often serve in hardship areas in hilly and difficult terrains, an official report said here today.
He requested the Army to maintain cordial and friendly relations with the civilians and to win the hearts of the local people by taking up welfare activities in the border areas.

The chief minister while insisting that border areas need to be connected with all weather roads emphasised on quality maintenance of these roads.
He specifically mentioned that construction work of Tawang Road, the progress of work of which was very slow, needed to be expedited as the road is strategically important in terms of defence and tourism point of view.

Pul asked them to further strengthen their base at eastern part of the state too and requested them to inform him in case of hurdles in getting land requirement from the government.
To expedite the process of land acquisition especially to facilitate the defence forces and Border Road Organizations, a single window system has been initiated by the state government with Chief Secretary as the Chairman of the committee with respective DCs, PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator) Environment & Forest as the members.

He, however, asked them to maintain a uniform rate all over the state while giving land compensation and requested them not to deviate from the rates fixed by the govt.
Earlier, Lieutenant General Bakshi while citing land
as the biggest issue apprised the difficulties in getting land acquisition for the establishment of their bases in the state and sought the intervention of the chief minister at appropriate level.
He also apprised the chief minister that infrastructure development in the state is their highest priority and informed that the process to strengthen the BRO with sufficient machineries is on fast.
Bakshi also requested Pul to exempt entry tax for the goods of the defence personnel as the same is exempted all over India and no separate fund is provided by the Ministry to pay for the entry tax to the state govt.