‘Arunachal Made Remarkable Progress in Reducing Poverty’: Governor at NEC Plenary

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen (Retd) K T Parnaik on Saturday said that the state has made remarkable progress in reducing multidimensional poverty, achieving a 166 per cent increase in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) since 2015-16, along with 321.8 per cent rise in state’s own resources since 2014-15.

Addressing the 72nd plenary of North Eastern Council (NEC) at Agartala in Tripura, he said that the people of the State take pride in being recognized among the ‘Front Runner States’ on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) scorecard for 2023-2024.

Parnaik informed the regional forum that concerted efforts are being made towards enhancing education standards in the state, right from strengthening of anganwadis and upgrading government schools,  implementation of NEP 2020, and use of technology by means of smart classes and establishment of ‘Advance Learning Centers’ in the districts, an official communiqué informed here.

“Arunachal Pradesh is one of India’s most aspirational states, where significant focus has always been on fostering the development, growth, and empowerment of our young population,” he said adding, as the nation looks forward to the next twenty-five years of ‘Amrit Kaal’, the state is fully committed to advancing the nation’s goal of realizing a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.

He added that the government’s major focus is on tourism including, creating infrastructure in destinations, skilling the youth as guides and tour operators and marketing as the state has a wide scope to develop eco, religious and adventure tourism. Highlighting the progress in agriculture and allied sector, Parnaik said that the state is producing 5,04,801 metric tonnes of cereals, including millets and 5000 MT of Kiwis. He stressed on the requirement of support from the NEC for establishment of warehouses for the storage and carriage of cereals and Kiwi products by rail to enable marketing in the rest of the country.

“The state is nurturing a dynamic startup ecosystem with the Arunachal Pradesh Innovation and Investment Park (APIIP), actively supporting investment, startup growth, and enhancing Ease of Doing Business,” he said and added that the state’s UNNATI scheme is positioned to propel towards realizing our industrial potential, while the focus remains on the non-polluting industries.

Parnaik added that the state has also made notable strides in law and order, including the launching of 14 mahila police stations and ‘pink patrolling’ to safeguard women, and implementing GIS, AI and ML-based crime monitoring in Itanagar as a pilot project.

He added that the state’s law enforcement personnel have undergone extensive training on new criminal laws and in addition the state’s legal professionals have been trained on the laws to ensure preparedness for legislative changes.

Highlighting the challenges of the state, the governor said that financial inclusion remains a challenge in Arunachal Pradesh, as well as workforce capacity, which are areas of concern. “We are pursuing an initiative similar to Mission Karmayogi, to help enhance the skills at the grassroots-level,” he said.

Expressing gratitude to the Centre and the DoNER ministry, for their support to the state, Parnaik stressed that the NEC, as a knowledge institution for the North Eastern Region, could play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges and advancing development goals in the state, the communiqué added.

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