The brighter side of 2015, many 'firsts' for Aruchal

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

Itagar, Dec 31: As 2015 – another year – goes by, it would be a better choice to end it on a good note…to look back at the brighter side of life that would never come back but has laid the foundations of a brighter future.

For Aruchal Pradesh – more particularly for Chief Minister bam Tuki leading from the front - Year 2015 undoubtedly had one of the best starts in recent times. In a Cabinet meeting held on January 16, the state government resolved to prepare the Aruchal Vision - 2030 which would detail medium and long term Development Vision for the state encompassing six broad areas like ebling infrastructure, economic potential, social sectors, social harmony, border development and resource mobilization.

The preparation of Aruchal Vision 2030 would base on identifying challenges, setting targets and working out a detailed development strategy.

Indeed a first in history of the state government, a Steering Group to monitor the preparation of the Aruchal Vision 2030 document was formed after consultations at various levels.

The Steering Group that includes Gen JJ Singh, former governor, ex members of the Planning Commission Saumitra Chaudhuri and B K Chaturvedi held its maiden meeting on March 28 at New Delhi.

In another first, Aruchal Pradesh debuted on the rail map of the country after 29 years as a state of the Indian Union. As the state celebrated its 29th Statehood Day on February 20, the first trains – one AC Express to New Delhi and one Intercity Express to Guwahati - chugged out of the state capital – flagged off ceremoniously by Prime Minister rendra Modi.

This year in July the state witnessed one of the most development-centric and pro-people budget ever in the history of Aruchal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Tuki, holding the portfolio of Fince, presented the State Budget for 2015-16 in the Assembly on July 15, which was subsequently passed by end of the 15-day session.

The Budget has been viewed by experts and commentators as a very progressive Budget presented in the State in recent times. It is a people’s budget wherein due weight-age has been given to social security, employment generation, education, health, basic minimum infrastructure, among others.

The CM earmarked Rs. 30 crores for his revolutiory CM’s Universal Health Insurance Scheme which is the major highpoint of the Budget. The Scheme covers the entire population of the State with a health insurance benefit of Rs. 3 lac per household per year.

It didn’t come as a surprise that the health insurance scheme drew attention at the tiol level and was accorded the prestigious Skoch Award for Smart Governce in a gala function at New Delhi.

The state Cabinet took a progressive decision on 3rd August to replace the State Planning Board (SPB) with the State Development Council (SDC) with concrete structural transformation to regulate development activities.

The first phase of SDC meetings was held for a marathon six days starting from 18th to 24th August under the Chief Minister, who outlined the vision and mission of the SDC and took a comprehensive review of all economic, social and other development sectors.

At the end of the first phase of the SDC meetings, it was decided to allocate Rs. 986 Crores to 32 state departments to undertake major development activities. Additiolly, some landmark decisions like the decision to start work on codification of customary laws and also conduct linguistic survey & documentation of languages in Aruchal Pradesh were also taken.

The second phase of SDC meetings was held from September 14 to 16 covering rest 25 departments. Unlike the erstwhile State Planning Board, the SDC provided ample time and space to the departments to place and advocate their proposals.

Earlier, the State Planning Board met for one day to complete the exercise while the SDC went minutely into the proposals of the departments that took 10 days, more than 60 hours of extensive discussion for fil approval.

At the end of the day, the SDC under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister had fixed a whopping Rs 12,500 crore for developmental and welfare activities this fincial year covering all the 57 government departments.

Aruchal Pradesh for the third consecutive year won the “Krishi Karman Commendation Award” (2013-14) in overall food grain production category. The award was given away by Prime Minister rendra Modi in a function held at Suratgarh, Rajasthan.

Aruchal was adjudged as first amongst the commendation award category for its achievement in overall food grain production as compared to previous year. The award consists of a citation and cash award of Rs 1 crore.

It is quite encouraging that the production and productivity of food grains like rice and coarse cereals has been in increasing trend as is evident from the fact that the overall food grain production in the state had reached a level of 3.89 lakh MT during 2013-14 as compared to 3.62 lakh MT during 2011-12 and anticipated to reach a level of 4.10 lakh MT during 2014-15 depending on the weather condition.

Another important development was the assurance by the Centre to consider the request of the Chief Minister for creation of the Patkai Autonomous Council to streamline the development in the backward and sensitive districts of Tirap , Changlang and Longding in eastern part of the state.

This assurance came in the meeting of a delegation of Congress MPs from the state and all Ministers and legislators of the three districts led by the Chief Minister with Union Home Minister at New Delhi.

The state government following discussions in the All Party and CLP meetings, filed a review petition with respect to the Supreme Courts’ directive regarding the Chakma Hajong refugees in the state.

The state government also resolved to immortalize the contributions of eminent persolities who served the people in various capacities as Chief Ministers and Ministers in their public life.

As per the decision the upcoming Government Law College at Jotte near Itagar will be med after late Jarbom Gamlin, former Chief Minister, while the ITI at Kanubari in Longding district will be med after late Newlai Tingkhatra, former Minister.

Former Chief Minister late Dorjee Khandu will have his me immortalized with the Rajbhavan Indoor Badminton Stadium at Itagar where he used to play regularly, while another former Chief Minister late Tomo Riba will have his me enshrined forever with the present State Hospital at harlagun.

The Outdoor Stadium at Jairampur in Changlang district will be med after former Minister late Setong Se and the Outdoor Stadium at Tezu in Lohit district will be med after former Minister late Sobeng Tayeng.

The stretch of road from ‘0’ Point Tili to Helipad in Itagar will be med after former Minister late T C Teli while the NH52-A, D Sector to Polo Colony road will be med after former Minister late Techi Takar.

As promised Gaon Buras were distributed TV sets across the state under the CM’s Rural Information Programme. The same would continue till all Gaon Buras and Gaon Buris of the state would have availed the benefit.

This year saw creation of two new districts in the state - Kra Daadi and Siang - taking the number of districts to 21.

On the persol front, Tuki got due recognition for his immensely successful skill development and employment generation mission. He was included in the Governing Council, the apex body of the newly created tiol Skill Development Mission, which is headed by the Prime Minister. The only two other Chief Ministers in the council are of J&K and Maharashtra.

It is but human ture that we tend to see the bad more than the good. A single bad episode overshadows hundreds of goods. While bidding goodbye to 2015, let us savour the goods and forget the bad.