Raga
Chief Minister Pema Khandu is a man of promise and he proved it today with the inauguration of Arunachal’s 22nd district “Kamle”.
On February 6 this year, Khandu – visiting Raga for the first time to join the fiftieth year of Boori Boot Yullo festival of the local Nyishis – had promised to create a new district as per a long-pending demand of the people. True to his words, Khandu today returned to Raga and inaugurated the 22nd district of Arunachal Pradesh – Kamle.
“I had promised to return to inaugurate the new district within this year. And here I am,” he said to a cheering crowd gathered on the historic day.
Congratulating the people of the newly created district, Khandu appreciated local legislator Tamar Murtem, Nyishi Elite Society, All Nyishi Students’ Union, All Nyishi Youth Association other community based organizations and local leaders for their genuine efforts in realizing the demand waiting in the shed for years.
“But this is just the beginning. Now we have to nurture and develop the newborn district. In terms of land, you have enough…around 8000 sq kms. We have to plan properly and utilize our resources judiciously so that Kamle district becomes at par with rest of the districts in the quickest possible time,” he said.
Khandu requested landowners to generously donate and cooperate with the district administration in creation of infrastructure to run the district. He assured that funds will not be a constraint in the development of the district.
“In the next budget we will keep enough provisions for the newly created districts. Wait for the budget announcements,” he assured.
Asserting that teamwork and resolve is needed to finish incomplete works, Khandu said that for years the establishment of divisional commissioner offices were pending, while the Lower Siang issue was being dragged on and on.
“By taking everybody into confidence, by working as Team Arunachal we made the Lower Siang district functional and recently inaugurated the Divisional Commissioner West headquarters at Yachuli. Also for years we were just dreaming of having a four-lane road for our state capital. Today, work on it is going in full swing,” he said.
Khandu further said that it is only due to team effort that today Shatabdi Express is coming to Arunachal while several significant railway lines are under survey.
Emphasizing on connectivity in development of the new district, he cited the ongoing trans-Arunachal highway as one major catalyst. He however regretted that the portion of highway connecting Raga is getting delayed mainly due to land compensation issues. He requested the people to cooperate with the authorities.
“I have been informed that almost all cases of compensation have been resolved. We will be now able to hand over the required land for work on the project to take off,” he informed.
Khandu reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is not resource-crunch but has been lagging to put to good use the abundant resources it has in its disposal economically.
“We have enough resources. But we need to convert these resources into capital,” he said while citing that the state has achieved an increase of 26% in revenue generation this year, which is quite outstanding. He said with GST in place the revenue would increase further in the coming years.
Khandu called upon all – especially the elected representatives – to ‘talk less, work more’.
Meanwhile, owing to water scarcity problem in Raga township, Khandu assured sanction for a water supply project worth Rs 16 crore.
The inaugural function of the new district was also attended by MoS Home Kiren Rijiju, Deputy Speaker Tumke Bagra, Parliamentary Secretary Likha Saaya besides host legislator Tamar Murtem, state BJP President Tapir Gao and others.
