19,358 tourists visit Aruchal in past three years: CM

From Our Correspondent

Itagar, March 7: Aruchal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday informed that a total number of 19,358 domestic and foreign tourists visited the state in the last three years. Responding to a question from BJP member Gabriel D Wangsu regarding creation of tourist circuit for Tirap and Longding districts during question hour, Khandu disclosed that during 2014 a total number of 6307 tourists visited the state while during 2015 6453 visited and in last year 6598 tourists visited. In reply to a supplementary the chief minister informed that creation of tourist circuit was under the purview of the union Home Ministry as per the Disturb Area Act of 1958. A tourist circuit encompassing Margherita-Jairampur, mpong-Manmao-Pangsau Pass had been opened recently in Changlang district while the Centre is considering opening more routes in Tirap and Longding districts. “The Centre has introduced new development scheme which will be considered for Longding,” he said and added that proposal for Guwahati-Balemu-Shergaon-Rupa route would be forwarded to the Centre for consideration. Earlier raising the question Wangsu said that he had visited insurgency-hit Longwa in galand where inflow of tourists was encouraging and infrastructure development is going on with improvement in the local economy.

BJP MLA Wangling Lowangdong who is also from Tirap district during a supplementary said that in spite of immense tourism potentials in Tirap, VChanglang and Longding districts, the state government was not taking up the issue with the Centre. “When Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir and galang have been encouraging tourism despite being declared as disturbed areas under Armed Forces Special Power (S) Act imposed during 1991 why Aruchal Pradesh government is not taking up the matter with the Centre to promote tourism in these three insurgency affected districts which comes under the AFSPA,” he wondered.