Pul calls on Assam governor, discuss vital issues

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

Itagar, March 5: Aruchal Chief Minister Kalikho Pul today called on Assam Governor Padmabha Balakrish Acharya at Raj Bhawan in the neighbouring state and had a detail discussion on various issues pertaining to both the states.

Pul was in Guwahati to attend the swearing in ceremony of Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court Justice Ajit Singh, an official release informed.

Pul during the meeting discussed sensitive issues like decades-old boundary row between Assam-Aruchal, differences of opinion on Hydro Electric Projects, means and measures to build up strong ties and maintain age-old bonhomie between the two immediate neighbours.

“Assam has always been a parent and a big brother of Aruchal Pradesh. It is for this reason that 99 per cent of Aruchalees can speak and understand Assamese while legend like Dr Bhupen Hazarika and his melodious songs still reverberate and echo in the hills and valleys of the state,” Pul said.

As a mark of respect to the great soul Dr Hazarika who, is also a symbol of bond between the two state, the chief minister informed that the state government would immediately release one crore to erect his statue in the state capital region and in all the vital entry points of Assam-Aruchal border.

“We shall make a garden where legend Bhupen Hazarika’s statue would be erected alongside other eminent persolities and artists of the state,” he disclosed.

On the border row, Pul said that he believed in solving the differences mutually rather than going to court for settlement.

“As the two states have been a family sharing good and bad times together for ages together, people of both the sides must maintain the centuries old mutual trust, love and age-old relationship of bonhomie,” the chief minister maintained.

He requested Assam Governor to help both the states retain the brotherhood relationship they had been maintaining for long.

Pul also appealed to the people of both the states, especially those living along the inter-state boundary, to maintain calm and not get provoked by unscrupulous elements that may attempt to take advantage of the situation for vested interests.

“Both the neighbouring states should work hand in hand to sort out the differences if any to maintain peace, he asserted. He further revealed that he would soon make persol visits to these border areas and interact with the people of both the sides.

Referring to hydro-electric projects in Aruchal Pradesh, Pul informed that there had been differences of opinions or misconception in the minds of few sections of society in Assam.

He clarified that benefits of Hydro Power development will equally be reaped by Assam being the immediate neighbour apart from the development prospects of the affected areas.

He also made it clear that hydropower projects would minimize the flood impact of Assam to a great extent which, every year witness vast devastation.

The chief minister also sought the support of Assam Government and the people of in developing Hydro Projects in the Aruchal Pradesh for betterment of all.

The discussion also rounded up on the prevailing insurgency in the Northeast, the release said.

Pul opined that the insurgency issue should be dealt with utmost care while respecting the sentiments of the locals or the organizations.

“Respective governments should provide platforms for the misguided youths to come back to the mainstream and live a normal and dignified life. All issues and differences should be amicably discussed and solved without resorting to violence, Pul said.

Governor Acharya advised Pul to introduce foreign languages in the Universities and higher studies institutions of the state in view of Aruchal sharing strategic intertiol borders with Chi, Bhutan and Myanmar.

“By doing so, you will help the country improve the bi-lateral relations, besides opening gates for border trade for economic growth of the region and improving the social as well as economic ties,” the governor said.

Pul, however, assured to look into the possibilities and invited the governor to visit Aruchal to which Acharya humbly accepted and assured to make a trip to the state soon, the release added.