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Arunachal Budget 2017-18, Major Financial Announcements

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Arunachal Budget 2017-18 has the Major Financial Announcements. This  is an innovative and path breaking budget including several transformational and structural changes was presented in the State Assembly today by Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein under the able guidance of young and dynamic Chief Minister, Pema Khandu.

Instead of incremental change in the priority sector which leads to nowhere, transformational changes have been projected especially in the budget with difference.

This year budget has a fiscal deficit of Rs 689.28 Crore for the year 2017-18 with 2.83% of Gross State Domestic Product and a revenue surplus of Rs 3435.41 Crores.

The underpinning philosophy of the Budget 2017-18 draws upon 15 broad themes, such as enhance transparency through governance reforms, empowering the youth and squarely address the twin challenge of deficit in skills and jobs, transformation of  rural farm economy, unlock the latent potential of land, introducing policy measures which stimulates entrepreneurship, public investments to have a balanced regional spread, overhauling the educational system in the state, to create an effective and affordable health services delivery model, to create a social security net for the elderly, widows and the disabled, to take measures for women empowerment, to bridge the infrastructure deficit, revitalizing the hydro power sector and tourism, to augment the internal resource generation capacity, effective Law and Order management and to follow a sustainable growth path in harmony with environment.

DCM while dwelling on the Governance Reforms being introduced by the present Govt said that Govt has decided to harmonize the functioning of the Planning and Finance department into an integrated Department of Finance and Investments headed by the Development Commissioner in line with the Union Govt. It will have three different wings: Investment and Planning division, Budget division and Economic Affairs division which will help in developing a holistic perspective of planning, resource mobilization and expenditure.

The Budget Estimates of 2017-18 has done away with the distinction of Plan and Non Plan and classifies the receipts and expenditure only in Capital and Revenue heads which would give a clearer picture on how much of our money is spent on productive assets and what proportion is used for operational expenses of a recurring nature. He added that it is a major reform in financial planning in our state and said that the Centrally Sponsored Schemes will be implemented on the Public Financial Management System platform.

He said that the govt decided to use technology as a major tool of governance for internal efficiency of govt as well as the quality of interface with citizens some of which are

the trinity of JAM – Jandhan, Aadhar and Mobile, E-Office, Portal for online registration of examinations, computerized human resource management system,, computerization of treasuries and Chief Minister’s Dashboard.  And as part of Digital India program, the Government of India is helping in expansion of optical fibre connectivity within the state and the state will witness substantial parts of the state getting cover on an optical fibre backbone within this year under the Bharat Net and National Optical fiber network scheme.

He also informed that stipends of students, scholarships, old age pensions, salaries of teachers of SSA, RUSA and RMSA will be paid on a direct benefit transfer mode directly into their bank accounts. All major citizen services will be provided online to reduce human interface for which a public grievance portal has been set up to redress citizen grievances and also to make all public procurement beyond a sum of Rs 1 crore to be done only through a public procurement portal by all departments.

He propose to allocate a sum of Rs 15 crores in the budget under the scheme Digital Arunachal for all these IT initiatives.

In a major decision to improve recruitment system, Govt decided to do recruitment of all Assistant Teachers of Schools on the basis of marks secured in the Teachers Eligibility Test and said “there shall be no interviews and subjective assessment”. Likewise, all police recruitment will be on the basis of a competitive exam based on OMR sheet based examination formats also the recruitments of all group B and C posts will be done through Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).

Govt decided to empower Deputy Commissioners with more power who will also be designated as Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioners to discharge the powers of Excise and Taxation commissioners within their jurisdiction in order to check leakage of revenue and will also fix timelines for each department to complete all pending promotions and convene departmental promotion committee meetings for all departments within the next six months.

Introducing the Direct Cash Benefit Transfer scheme in select urban areas of Itanagar, Naharlagun, Doimukh, Pasighat, Tezu, Namsai, Roing, Khonsa, selected areas of Bomdila which will cover 1.89 lakh priority households, the state will be the amongst the first states in the country to implement the DBT scheme in food subsidy and surely the first to do so in the entire north east. “It reaffirms the commitment of our government to root out corruption which has plagued the society for long and will be a major pillar of governance reform”, Mein said.

With a view to create gainful employment opportunities, the Govt has decided to establish Skill University in Arunachal Pradesh on a PPP framework with a new concept of “ear while you learn”. Govt also propose to establish a paramedical training college on a PPP framework which will provide training to nurses and create a pool of trained manpower who can work outside the state. For these initiatives in the skill development space, Govt allocate an initial sum of Rs. 5 crores.

Govt also aim to train 9000 youth in the coming financial year under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana with minimum 70% employment guarantee and an outlay of Rs 24 crores. Four ITI’s will be made operational next year: at Sagalee, Ziro, Kanubari and Pangin.

One model ITI will be established at Yupia with an outlay of Rs 2.5 crores.

To encourage local entrepreneurship, Govt is administering a Chief Minister’s Swalamban Yojana (CMSY). According to which,  back ended 30% Capital investment subsidy will be provided for small and medium enterprises on loans ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crores excluding land and building. Women entrepreneurs will be additionally eligible for obtaining an interest subsidy of 5% on loans under this scheme.

While proposing an allocation of Rs 150 crores under CMSY, DCM expressed hope that at least 1500 youth will become entrepreneurs  and at least 7500 youth will gain direct employment and another 15000 people will secure indirect employment.

Government also announced to create at least 3000 new government jobs, including those in the newly created districts and circle headquarters to make them fully functional.

For the women engaged in weaving, Govt announced to launch Chief Minister’s Bunkar Yojana under which interest subsidy of 7% will be provided on working capital loan

under MUDRA scheme upto a ceiling of 2 lakhs. He said that it will cover 3000 women weavers under this scheme and proposed an allocation of Rs 2.5 crores for this scheme.

There have been various initiatives under Agriculture & allied sectors some of which are to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains: Rice, other coarse cereals  and Pulses production by 2020 and total Rice sufficiency by 2023 from the present day deficit levels of 27%.

He also proposed to earmark an amount of Rs 10 crores to take up land terracing activity in the food grains deficit districts of the state during 2017-18.

He also proposed Rs 2 crores under Chief Minister’s Mission Organic for production of organic inputs in the Govt. Farms to promote Organic Agriculture Movement in the state.

To provide good quality seeds and plating materials at affordable price to the farmers, Four Tea & Rubber nurseries -Rubber Nurseries at Govt. Farm Kherem and Sonajuli and Tea nurseries at Govt. Farm Bolung and Jumlo to be under technical supervision of Agriculture Dept. for which a sum of Rs.10.00 cr is earmarked for this purpose during 2017-18.

 Under the crop loan scheme, Government of India provides an interest subsidy of 4% on a crop loan upto Rs 3 lakhs. I propose that the Government of Arunachal Pradesh will bear the remaining 3% interest burden on farmers out of the prescribed 7% interest and target 7500 new farmers to be covered under the scheme and also issue them Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). This will help the farmers in securing their working capital loans for regular agricultural operations at zero interest rates.

An allocation of Rs 3 crores is being made under the Chief Minister’s Krishi Rinn Yojana which will also be issuing a notification wherein a certificate of area and crop being cultivated by farmers issued by the Circle Officer will be accepted by the banks as proof of cultivation and no further documents will be required.

A state level Agriculture Information Hub cum Farmers’ Hostel will be established at Naharlagun to serve as the node for knowledge and resource sharing for agriculture and allied sectors. An initial allocation of Rs 5 crores is being proposed for this purpose during 2017-18.  The Govt further announced to to continue the Agri- Mechanization program and an allocation of Rs.10.00 crore being  earmarked for 2017-18.

In order to boost the research activities in Horticulture Department, Govt proposed to propose to give one time Corpus Fund of Rs. 5 crores to State Horticulture Research and Development Institute (SHRDI) under which will be utilized by the institute for core activities including revenue generating activities that aims at ultimately becoming self-sustaining in future.

Govt also propose to create new nurseries across different agro-climatic zones of the State. Four new nurseries including one for High Altitude Medicinal Plants will be established at Ziro, Lower Subansiri for temperate crops, Basar, West Siang for Sub-tropical crops and Namsai for tropical crops and at Tawang for medicinal plants. All four new nurseries will be managed by the SHRDI and a fund provision of Rs. 2 crores has been proposed for the purpose.

In order to register the horticulral products of Arunachal Pradesh under Geographical Indication Registration in order to secure the trade interest of farmers in future, SHRDI has started activities in this regard, Wakro Orange being the first GI product of the State to get registered. Now, other indigenous crops of medicinal importance, local spices, scented and sticky rice need to be taken up for registration. A total of eight indigenous crops is proposed to be taken up for registration this year for which fund provision of Rs. 50.00 lakh has been proposed.

In order to converge with the project of Spices Board of India, the Department of Horticulture proposed to establish marketing facilities for spices in these centers and a proposal of  Rs. 2 crores for the purpose has been made.

And to wean away poppy growers, Govt will provide support for alternative cash crops and plantation crops and said to allocate a sum of Rs 20 crores for providing them plantation material.

Under Animal Husbandry Department, an initial outlay of Rs 5 crores has been proposed for the Chief Minister’s white revolution program to establish an integrated dairy development project in Lohit district.

Under the Blue Revolution scheme, support will be provided to nearly a 1000 fish farmers for construction of fishing ponds and fish feed for which an allocation of Rs 6 crores has been proposed.

Under the National Livestock Development Program and the Dairy Entrepreneurship development scheme of Government of India, the state govt propose to provide an additional back ended capital subsidy of 25% from the state government, over and above the 33% subsidy available through Central government. This will, in effect provide coverage for half the capital cost for these activities and proposed to allocate a sum of Rs 5 crores for this purpose.

Dy Cm also announced that the APEX bank will be installing 37 ATM machines with cash dispensing facility along with customer service point and VSAT connectivity in partnership with NABARD and RBI. The APEX bank has also set a target to distribute 10,000 kisan credit cards next year and RuPAY cards to 40,000 Jandhan account holders. For which a proposal to allocate Rs 3 crores has been made. He also proposed to allocate another Rs 1 crore for working capital loan to various cooperative societies in the state.

Emphasizing on irrigation for augmenting food production, Water Resources Department plans to cover an area of 11,000 hectare under irrigation through conjunctive use of surface and ground water as well as by rejuvenating defunct projects with proposed outlay of Rs 25.00 crore.

The department also plans to complete the ongoing 10 projects under the de-linked CSS Flood Management Programme (FMP) with proposed resource outlay of Rs 30 Crore to be availed from the Centre.

Dy Cm also announced that Govt decided to amend the prevailing land laws and rules to enable private land owners to give their land on long term lease. Government land, which can currently be leased for a maximum of 40 years will be available for lease for projects of importance for a longer periods. After these changes in the regulatory framework, the land possession certificates which have been issued so far will be converted to deemed ownership certificates after payment of conversion charges, and conducting proper land survey. Sale or any exchange of land will henceforth have to be registered under Stamp and Registration Act on payment of notified stamp duties and district wise minimum floor rates will be notified. These changes will enable land owners to lease it out for productive investments and also give a land title proof which would be used for bank mortgage for purposes of taking loans. He said, all these changes will be done in a manner which secures the interests of the tribal people of the state which are safeguarded by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation. A land pooling policy will be notified which will make landowners partners in progress in key infrastructure and industrial development projects, while reducing the burden of land acquisition cost for the state, Mein added.

Govt also announced to roll out a new Industrial Policy 2017 which will develop Industrial estates in the foothill districts. For this purpose, an initial allocation of Rs 15 crores is being made through NABARD assistance. Govt also proposed to develop one food park at Tippi which will have common infrastructure facilities for investors including packaging, storage and processing. An allocation of Rs 10 crores is being made in the current financial year for this purpose.

Govt also giving emphasize on Balanced Regional Development, apart from Itanagar, govt propose to develop Pasighat, Tezu and Bomdila as regional growth centres, which would have all facilities at the regional level for education, healthcare, employment generation, skilling and serve as economic growth hubs.

To meet up the urgent infrastructure requirement of the newly created five new districts: Kra Daadi, Siang, Lower Siang, Namsai and Longding, DCM propose to provide an allocation of Rs 15 crores to each of these districts

He also proposed to keep a provision of Rs 50 crores in the budget for socio economic development in the districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding under DOTCL.

He also said that Govt is going to establish Chief Minister’s District Innovation and Challenge Fund, with a corpus of Rs 100 crores which will be administered under the direct supervision of the concerned Deputy Commissioners, who will submit innovative schemes which capture the true requirement of the district and submit proposals for creating infrastructure or running a special scheme for the district with a minimum size of Rs 2 crores and a maximum of Rs 10 crores per district.

In line with the basic philosophy of the Prime Minister, Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas, Govt are creating a corpus of Chief Minister’s Adarsh Gram Yojana with a corpus fund of Rs 93 crores. Money will be allocated to each Deputy Commissioner for focused development activities in one village per circle with clearly defined parameters. The money will be used for ensuring that these 123 villages become aadarsh gram with adequate basic infrastructure, community assets and will serve the twin objective of creating employment opportunities for people of those villages and creating community assets in rural areas. The villages will be identified by the Deputy Commissioners in consultation with the Zilla Panchayat leaders and other elected representatives which will form the basis of sustained investments in rural areas and focused infrastructure interventions.

Under the RURBAN Mission. Tuting is being developed as a rural cluster through which rural areas would be provided with urban amenities. Nafra cluster will be taken up for implementation in the next financial year and an outlay of Rs 5 crores has been proposed for this scheme.

For the activities of State Institute of Rural Development, an outlay of Rs 5 crores is proposed under the centrally sponsored scheme.

Under the Fourteenth Finance Commission grants for 2016-17, Govt is receiving a grant of Rs 122 crores and a performance based grant of Rs 16 crores. In the next financial year, it is expected to receive a basic grant of Rs 141 crores and a performance grant of Rs 18.20 crores, informed Mein.

In the next few months, govt will be notifying the constitution of the Third State Finance Commission to enable it to submit its recommendations in time for consideration of the Fifteenth Finance Commission and proposed to allocate a sum of Rs 50 crore for the zilla panchayat bodies and anchal samitis from the state budget. This transfer of resources will be made directly to the accounts of the local bodies, Dy Cm said.

The Public Health Engineering department has covered 48 habitations for drinking water supply this year under the National Rural Drinking Water Program and is planning to cover another 200 habitations next year with a proposed outlay of Rs 100 crores.

He also said that the Govt is in the process of declaring Tawang, West Kameng, East Kameng, Tirap, Changlang, Lohit, West Siang, Lower Subansiri as open defecation free districts. In the coming year, it plans to support construction of 36000 new and defunct individual household latrines, 711 community toilets and 700 solid liquid waste management systems with a proposed outlay of Rs 100 crores under Swacch Bharat Mission.

Mein also said that Rural road construction works are being undertaken across the state under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana. “This year, 16 roads have been taken up to cover 35 habitations, covering a length of 236 km. For the financial year 2017-18, we have set an ambitious target of covering 1000 km of rural roads and an outlay of Rs 450 crores has been proposed for this purpose”he informed.

Under Education, an intensive outcome improvement program will be undertaken in all primary and upper primary schools and a sum of Rs 1 crore is being allocated for this purpose. A sum of 30 crores is being earmarked for Chief Minister’s Adhunik Shiksha Yojana to cover nearly 1500 classrooms under this program.

He also propose to allocate a sum of Rs 2 crores for completion of works of VKV Longding and a sum of Rs 10 crores for starting classes at VKV Mukto on a PPP basis. The Ramakrishna Mission Educational institutions have made a significant contribution to the cause of school education. An MOU is has been signed with the Ramakrishna Mission to establish a residential school at Lumdung in East Kameng district. For this purpose, proposal for an allocation of Rs 15 crores for a corpus fund and Rs 16 crores outlay for infrastructure has been kept. In order to operationalize the State University at Pasighat, Mein proposed to allocate a sum of Rs 10 crores and to allocate a sum of Rs 10 Crore for construction of boys hostel building and upgrading college infrastructure of JN College, Pasighat which is the oldest college of the state.

Govt also take a decision to establish a girls college at Poma in Papum Pare district for which a sum of Rs 5 crores has been earmarked and this year work for establishment of the first Engineering College of the state at Toru in Papum Pare district will commenced with support of Central assistance under RUSA. A sum of Rs 10 Crores is being earmarked for this project in the coming financial year, Mein informed.

Govt has also taken a decision to establish a degree college at Tawang for which a sum of Rs 10 crores is being earmarked in 2017-18 and the building of the first law college of the state has been completed by NHPC at Jote under the CSR program and informed that the academic session will be starting in 2017-18. Govt will be creating the required teaching and non-teaching posts and Rs 2 Crores has been earmarked for procurement of books, furniture etc.

Govt also announced to commence Science stream in Wangcha Rajkumar Degree College at Deomali and start a Greenfield Science College at Namsai with an  initial outlay of Rs. 8 crores. Govt will also be introducing the science stream at DP college, Kamki and Rs 4 crores has been earmarked for construction of Science block at Kamki.

Govt also propose to establish an Education Hub at Tezu inside the campus of the degree college which will have a hotel management institute, a College of architecture, Institute of smart Governance and a Polytechnic. This educational hub will serve the educational requirements of the entire population of the eastern districts of the state. The detailed design consultancy work for this project will be awarded this year and an initial outlay of Rs 2 crores has been made in this financial year, which will be made available at the disposal of Deputy Commissioner.

Govt also decided to make the salary of teachers under RMSA at par with those under SSA.

It has also decided to enhance the stipend of DIET students from Rs 380 to Rs 1400 per month and this will be distributed on the DBT platform.

Mein also propose to allocate a sum of Rs.3 crores to the newly created department of Youth Affairs for conducting various youth activities for cultural expression and recreation.

Govt is committed to modernizing the sports infrastructure for our youth and said to provide a budget of Rs.15 crores for construction of viewing gallery and artificial turf facility at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium at Naharlagun. DCM also proposed to allocate a sum of Rs. 48 crores to complete the construction of outdoor stadiums at Pasighat, Yupia and Daporijo.

Under Health Sectors, Govt announced to allocate a sum of Rs. 3 crores for providing free Chemotherapy for APST cancer patients for upto 500 patients in the tertiary care centre at Naharlagun, upto a ceiling of Rs 10 lakh per patient. For this purpose, the Health department will enter into an agreement with Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai for concessional procurement of chemotherapy medicines, he informed.

Govt to allocate Rs. 15 crores for procurement and installation of CT scan machines at Naharlagun and Pasighat this year.

In order to address the menace of drug addiction in some parts of the state, DCM proposed to allocate a sum of Rs. 10 crores for modernization of existing drug de-addiction centres at Pasighat, Tezu, Namsai, Changlang, Papum Pare, including for  purchase of required medicines and equipment and a new drug de-addiction centre will be established at Khonsa.

Rs. 45 crores has been allocated for completion of the hospital infrastructure and for recruitment of new faculty for the college with the aim to start the medical college from academic year 2018-19.

The infrastructure and equipment of 5 zonal general hospitals will be upgraded at Bomdila, Tezu, Ziro, Aalo and Khonsa for which a provision of Rs. 25 crores has been proposed and govt also decided to launch special clinics for the elderly in each district hospital.

This year, Govt shall be commissioning 15 dialysis machines in district hospitals including at Naharlagun, Tezu, Pasighat, Tawang and Itanagar.

In his Budget Speech, DCM also proposed for the government employees who are afflicted by critical and life threatening illness, medical reimbursement on actual expenses provided from a list of notified hospitals.

He also proposed to provide a matching incentive to 3827 ASHA workers through additional support from state government, commensurate with their outcomes.

While informing that there are over 38000 old age pensioners and over 4000 widow pensioners who get a meager monthly pension which ranges from Rs. 200 per month to Rs 500 per month, DCM proposed to enhance the old age pension to Rs. 1500 per month for people between 60 to 79 years and for people above 80 years Rs. 2000 per month.

Similarly, the disabled pension and widow pension are also proposed to be enhanced from Rs. 300 per month to Rs. 2000 per month under the Chief Minister’s social security scheme. For this purpose, he proposed to make an allocation of Rs. 60 crores under the Chief Minister’s Social security scheme and the benefit will be transferred to the beneficiary directly under the Direct Benefit transfer scheme.

Govt also decided to increase the honorarium of anganwadi workers to Rs. 4500 per month from Rs 3000 per month and for anganwadi helpers to Rs. 3000 per month from Rs 1500 to provide them adequate incentive for work. The additional budget will be provided from the state’s own resources.

Underscoring the empowerment of the Girl child as a key priority for the government, this year the govt is operationalizing the Dulari Kanya Yojana under which the Women and Child Development Department will make a fixed deposit of Rs. 20,000 for each institutional delivery of a girl child, which will be used to fund her higher studies on attaining the age of 18 years.

Under the supplementary nutrition program, 2.15 lakh children are being provided supplementary nutrition at these anganwadi centres and an outlay of Rs. 45 crores has been proposed. Under the integrated child protection scheme, six new juvenile homes are proposed to be constructed at Aalo, Bomdila, Changlang, Tezu, Roing, Yupia and an allocation of Rs. 6 crores is proposed for the purpose.

Under Infrastructure Development, it is proposed to allocate Rs.18.00 crores for Highway Zone, PWD for taking up consultancy services for Survey & Investigation and preparation of Detailed Project Report for the frontier highway and the East West Industrial corridor.

Govt also allocated fund for construction of new Arunachal Bhawan at New Delhi  of Rs. 30 crores for payment of land allotment fee and for commencing construction of the project of the two new Bhawan buildings at Delhi. Apart from this, Rs. 5 crores earmarked for upgrading the infrastructure at Arunachal Bhawan and House at New Delhi. For another

new Arunachal Bhawan at Guwahati, a provision of Rs. 10 crores is being kept.

A sum of Rs. 10 crores has been kept for upgradation of the infrastructure of the Administrative Training Institute at Naharlagun and also a sum of Rs.5 crores has been earmarked for construction and upgradation of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission building and infrastructure.

With a determination to complete the languishing District Secretariats, an allocation of Rs. 50 crores has been kept to the Public Works department for completing district Secretariat buildings in various districts.

Govt is commited to operationalize the ALGs at Pasighat, Ziro, Tezu, Mechuka, Tuting for civilian use within this financial year through small fixed wing aircrafts and three helicopters to be operated on a viability gap funding model. For this purpose, an allocation of Rs. 5 crores under the Chief Minister’s Air connectivity scheme has been proposed.  It is  also proposed to allocate a sum of Rs. 5 crore for constructing new terminal buildings at ALGs. Mein also proposed to reduce VAT on Air turbine Fuel to zero for encouraging greater air connectivity prospects in the state.

Citing power as the lifeline of modern economies, this year State govt is planning to electrify nearly 1500 un-electrified villages both on the on grid mode and through decentralized solar energy at an estimated cost of Rs. 300 crore under the Deendayal Upadhyay Gramjyoti Yojana.

Govt have set a target of achieving 100% rural electrification and will thereafter embark upon a 100% household electrification campaign. It is expected that at least 700 of the remote rural villages will get electrified by August 2017 and the remaining by March 2018. The government of India has also assured that free television sets would be provided under CSR program to the electrified households in the off grid mode, informed DCM.

Under Chief Minister Energy Conservation scheme which will be run by APEDA to provide subsidy for installation of LED bulbs by private consumers and also to encourage pre paid metering in select locations, a State energy conservation fund has already been created for which an additional allocation of Rs. 1.5 crores is proposed to be made.

Govt also taken a decision to establish a separate Transmission Company to function as state transmission utility which will operate and manage the assets of high voltage transmission infrastructure and to augment the street lighting facility within the capital complex, Govt is undertaking a comprehensive street lighting scheme from Karsingsa to Itanagar, Naharlagun town area upto Hollongi and within Tawang township area on a PPP basis with smart street lighting poles, with CCTV cameras and provision for wi-fi. These will serve the purpose of lighting, connectivity and also city surveillance and an allocation of Rs. 60 crores has been been proposed for this purpose.

For senior Govt servants serving at Capital, a proposal to allocate a sum of Rs. 30 crores to Urban Development department to complete the construction of flats for senior government servants at Capital complex has been placed.

And for completion of inter-state bus terminus at Lekhi, DCM proposed to allocate an additional sum of Rs. 10 crores to make it functional this year.

The Convention Centre at Itanagar will also be completed this year and an allocation of Rs. 24 crores has been proposed for this project and an additional allocation of Rs. 80 crores for completion of housing complex for Legislators at Chimpu.

A sum of Rs. 2 crores to the Town Planning department for hiring professional architect to create an inventory of projects to be taken up in key urban centres of Arunachal Pradesh has been proposed.

Under Tourism & Culture, a Tourism promotion policy will outline a comprehensive plan for investments in this sector. A national branding campaign is being launched across all mediums – electronic, digital and print to reach out to the eclectic traveler and make them aware of the opportunities for investment, ecotourism and adventure in the state for which a sum of Rs. 30 crores for a corpus fund for the Tourism Society to run these activities has been placed.

It was also proposed to allocate a sum of Rs. 2 crores to establish eco-tourism resorts at Tawang and Ziro on a PPP basis apart from initial allocation of a sum of Rs. 5 crore for development of Menchuka as a model tourist town on a pilot basis. This will be created with the specific objective of planned urbanization by hiring world class urban planners said the Deputy Chief Ministers.

Emphasizing on preservation of indigenous culture, DCM said that we need to document and preserve the rich cultural traditions and customary laws of each of our tribes so that the future generations are able to relate to them. It is our culture, indigenous faith, folklore and art which gives us our distinct identity. He said that the government is serious about preservation of indigenous belief systems and cultural traditions and also stress on the  need to preserve the linguistic traditions which are under threat.

He proposed to allocate a sum of Rs. 5 crores to the Research Department for carrying out audio visual and documentary research of the living heritage of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and capture the oral traditions, customary laws, indigenous faith  and unique socio cultural practices which set them apart from the rest.

He also proposed to earmark an initial allocation of Rs. 10 crores for establishing a heritage village at Itanagar, which showcases the cultural richness and diversity of our state.

He further said that Arunachal Pradesh occupies a special place in the whole of the north eastern region and the people of the state have a close affinity with Hindi language, which is a strong symbol of their national identity and propose to allocate a sum of Rs. 1 crore for promotion of Hindi as a national language by the department of Research.

According priority on law and order and security & safety of women, DCM informed that a toll free number 181 will soon be provided to the Women Helpline which is being run by the Department of Women and Child Development and similarly a toll free number 1091 will be provided for the Women Police Stations.

He also announced that in acknowledgment of the tough and arduous duty performed by the police personnel, the government has already enhanced the amount of Ration Money for police personnel from existing Rs. 300/- to Rs. 1000/-.

Mein further informed that that the State cabinet has approved creation of 56 new posts for traffic police and a sum of Rs. 110.00 lakhs has also been sanctioned during the current year for improvement of traffic management in Capital Complex as well as other districts.

Dy Cm further stated that in order to tackle the special problems faced in the insurgency prone districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding, the Union Home minister announced that in the coming financial year 2017-18, construction and upgradation of 20 Police Station buildings and other infrastructure in these three districts will be taken up at a cost  of Rs. 156.20 crore.

He also said that the Police department was allocated Rs. 74 crores under the State Development Agenda 2016-17 for various constructions and repair/maintenance works of police department which includes construction of 5 new Police station buildings including Itanagar, 3 women Police station buildings, completion of SP office buildings at Tawang and Koloriang, DIG residence at Namsai, SP residence at Bomdila and Longding and a number of residential quarters/barracks/sentry posts and other infrastructure for our men.

He said that there are 2203 vacancies in Arunachal Pradesh Police and a process of fair and transparent recruitment for some of these posts has already started and it shall be filled up this year. To provide adequate support for the housing requirements of Police Force, initial allocation of Rs 20 crores for police housing infrastructure has been proposed.

Mein also informed that the Govt has prepared a blueprint to upgrade the Police training centre at Banderdewa so that specialized training can be provided for which a sum of Rs. 5 crores is proposed to be allocated for this purpose and for the police mess at Chimpu Rs. 3 crore is proposed for upgradation.

Govt also propose to allocate a sum of Rs. 2 crores for augmentation of UTP cells at Chowkham and Seppa and another sum of Rs 5 crores for purchasing fire- fighting equipment.

Under Environment & Forest, Forest department undertakes programs under Project Elephant, Project tiger and Wildlife Habitat program at Pakke tiger reserve, D Ering wildlife sanctuary and Namdapha wild life sanctuary and a sum of Rs. 8.7 crores is being proposed for allocation for these programs. Under the National Forest Mission and Bamboo Mission, an allocation of Rs. 3.2 crores has been proposed.

Citing that currently government employees avail loan from government for house construction upto a maximum sum of Rs. 15 lakhs at an interest rate of 9.5%. but the present budget propose to introduce a Chief Minister’s Employee Housing Scheme under which employees can avail bank loan of upto Rs. 30 lakhs and will get an interest subsidy of

4% from government. This will entail a net interest rate of 4.5% and a doubling of housing loan entitlement and propose to allocate a sum of Rs. 5 crores for the purpose.

Govt also decided to enhance the monthly wages of contingency workers by Rs 1000 per month.

In order to ensure that all the budget announcements translate into reality, a High Level Committee will be established in Finance department to prepare an implementation oversight framework which will ensure timely completion, said the DCM while concluding his budget speech.

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