Khandu calls for planning to harness tural resources

Itagar, Nov 13: Aruchal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has called for good planning to harness the vast tural resources of the State.

Attending a function at the official resident of Deputy Chief Minister Chow Mein here on Sunday night, organized by the Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) and Sustaible Development Forum of Aruchal Pradesh (SDFA), Khandu said, “Though the State has abundant tural resources but due to poor planning we are still uble to tap these resources to our advantage.” 

He said that strong political will power is the need of the hour for desired changes while formulating programme and policies in a more holistic way.

The chief minister stated that there is a big gap in understanding sustaible activities in the mountain region till date, but expressed hope that with the formation of IMI such issues would be resolved soon.

He invited IMI to educate the government officers and youth through semirs, to do in-depth research and come up with State specific programmes as it has many challenges of its own.

While assuring to empower IMI through proper funding, he asked the chief secretary to examine the proposal submitted by IMI and also to incorporate the proposal of Aruchal Pradesh Bio-Resource Development Mission.

SDFA chairperson and secretary of IMI Fantry Mein Jaswal, while highlighting the initiatives and activities taken by IMI, said that it aims to look into the development challenges faced by the Indian Himalayan Region for a common platform for regular interaction of the stakeholders in the region and formulation of a common essential plan for the region.

She said IMI had initiated two of India’s biggest independent platforms for discussing mountain’s development – the Sustaible Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) and Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS), which brings together States from IHR on a common platform to discuss their issues.

On the occasion, the Head of State Horticulture Research & Development Institute Egam Basar highlighted the detail activities to be taken up under the proposed Aruchal Pradesh Bio-Resource Development Mission through power point presentation.