Will move Centre for inclusion of three districts in Tourist circuit: Pema Khandu

TIRAP, CHANGLANG & LONGDING

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Monday assured to pursue the Centre for early clearance of a proposed Tourist circuit in troubled Tirap district of the State.

Responding to a question raised in the Assembly by senior Congress MLA Wanglin Lowangdong during 'Question Hour', Khandu informed that a few years back, the government had written a letter to the Tourism Ministry to approve the circuit.

"The matter is pending with the Home Ministry as during that point of time the security scenario of the district was not conducive. I will soon convene a meeting and send a fresh representation to the Home Ministry for early clearance of the circuit within this year.

Khandu added that the other two troubled districts — Changlang and Longding in the eastern part of the State — also need to be included in tourist circuit so that they developed at par with other parts of the State.

The Chief Minister also said that the State government has attached priority to the sector and accordingly launched several schemes for its development.

DEOMALI-KHONSA-LAJU AREAS: Raising the question, Lowangdong wanted to know the status of the tourist circuit connecting Deomali-Khonsa-Laju areas of the district with Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam.

In reply to the question, Tourism Minister Nakap Nalo informed that efforts are on to open up tourist circuits in several districts of the State.

"The government has been discussing with the Centre for opening up of more tourist circuits in the State by resolving all the issues including Protected Area Permit (PAP) and Restricted Area Permit (RAP).

''The Centre is working on the criteria for approving tourist circuits in the State," said Nalo, adding, "approval of tourist circuit is under the jurisdiction of the Tourism Ministry with due clearance from the Home Ministry."

DISTURBED AREAS: Last year, the Centre declared the three districts and four police stations in Arunachal Pradesh as "disturbed area" under the AFSPA for six more months from October 1, 2020, after review of insurgent activities and the law-and-order situation there.

Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts in the State and the areas falling within the jurisdiction of the four police stations in Namsai and Mahadevpur (Namsai district), Roing in Lower Dibang Valley and Sunpura in Lohit district bordering Assam, have been declared as 'disturbed area' under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, up to March 31 this year.

The three districts of the State and the areas within the jurisdiction of the four police stations have presence of banned militant outfits like NSCN, ULFA and NDFB.

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