Arunachal: Corruption, drugs, law and order are not new issues, but my Govt is dealing all cases with iron hands- Pema Khandu

ITANAGAR-   Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu stated that “Corruption, drugs, law and order are not new issues. These have been prevailing since last many years but no government ever took strong action to curb these. Just because we are dealing these ills with iron hands, it feels like these are issues of our time,” he said.

While addressing the representatives of all community based organizations (CBOs) of the state active under the umbrella of Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Federation (AITF), Khandu said that in fact cases of corruption are not new but have been in practice since many years. These are today in limelight because his government has been dealing each case with iron hands, he asserted. . 

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The day-long session with the CBOs, chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, discussed on various issues confronting the state to chalk out a way forward to build the Arunachal Pradesh of everyone’s dream.

Responding to the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) paper leakage fiasco that took centerstage during  the discussion, Khandu shared that as per public demand and on state government’s request the country’s top probe agencies – Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) – have taken over the case and investigating the case independently.

“There are many elders and seniors sitting here today. Can anyone say that corruption started only since 2016 (the year of paper leakage scam)?” he asked.

Khandu termed coming of CBI and ED to investigate in the state one big blow to all corrupt enjoying and roaming freely in the state.

Khandu counterclaimed that cases of corruption and crime have actually come down under his government due to instant and strong actions initiated.

“However, the government can’t do anything alone. We – the CBOs and the government – need to work as team Arunachal to thwart these ills,” he said.

Khandu asserted that the CBOs have a huge responsibility to enthuse a sense of discipline amongst its community members, lack of which, he claimed, is mother to all issues.

Meanwhile, Khandu proposed that the interactive event should be made an annual event, wherein the state government could discuss issues confronting the society with specific facts and figures with members of the CBOs.

At the end, a resolution was signed between the state government represented by the Chief Secretary and leaders of the CBOs (Details below).

During the session, Ankur Garg, Commissioner Coordination made a presentation on ‘Building Arunachal Pradesh of our dreams’ while socio economic issues on health was presented by Vivek HP, Special Secretary Health, war on drugs by Kanki Darang, Commissioner Narcotics, education sector by Amjad Tak, Commissioner Education, Law and Order by Jalas Pertin, Joint Secretary Home and the APPSC issue by Ajay Chagti, Secretary Administrative Reforms.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, Home Minister Bamang Felix, Chief Secretary Dharmendra, AITF President Bengia Tolum, representatives of all community based organizations.

Joint Resolution: 

• Promoting inter-tribal harmony and building composite culture of Arunachal Pradesh
• Preserving, protecting and promoting the indigenous culture and traditions of the state, while helping youths imbibe and propagate our cultures.
• Reorienting obsolete and unhealthy practices affecting lives, health and livelihoods of citizens.
• Improving access to education for all children of school-going age, especially higher education, ensuring age-appropriate enrolment of students in schools, mainstreaming drop-out children, helping improve learning outcomes for students and inculcating 21^st century skills.
• Leading change by supporting clubbing of schools, rationalization of teachers postings, curbing problems of teacher absenteeism, substitute teacher, etc by strengthening functioning of school management committees and by ensuring a cultural shift from focus on school infrastructure to creating an enabling environment for children to excel in every sphere of life.
• Empowering people in society, especially amongst the youth, to adopt healthy lifestyles, promoting intake of fresh, healthy and balanced diet by providing requisite information and support and removing associated stigmas ad myths.
• Re-imagining Self Help Groups as Self Health Groups to immediately highlight and amplify the importance of health and inculcating self help towards healthy lifestyles besides improving socio-economic health of members, thereby bringing discussions around health, health access, primary prevention etc to primary focus in the agenda of voluntary and other organizations.
• Communicating openly about HIV-AIDS and cancer, including advocacy for early screening, detection, prompt referrals and comprehensive management of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
• Extending support to health institutes and health workers in all spheres of their activity, including vaccinations, propagation and documentation of traditional health practices and improving access and affordability of healthcare to all citizens.
• Ensuring rule of law prevails in the state by working in close coordination with the community, civil society and all concerned stakeholders and zero tolerance for corruption in the state.
• Building a sense of community ownership of public institutions and deepening respect for the law.
• Helping ameliorate the burden on individuals, families and societies on account of instance of drug abuse, by undertaking awareness programs for reducing stigma related to drug problems, encouraging health and rehabilitation seeking behavior, promoting alternative crops and alternative livelihoods and strengthening enforcement activities.
• Promoting cultivation of traditional crops, millets, etc to deepen food security and enable nutrient and micro-nutrient availability.
• Deepening participation and representation of all citizens in governance mechanism.
• Sharing research and insights in the policy making and implementation process.
• Promoting ease of doing business in the state and enhancing ease of living of citizens.
• Support public infrastructure development by aiding in timely land acquisition by following due process.
• Building culture of reforms across all levels of administration and sections of citizens.
• Ensuring environmental sustainability through community led and law backed management of forest and non forest resources.
• Leveraging social and digital media to promote solidarity and as tools for social audits, grievance redressal, etc.
• Promoting esprit de corps for strengthening TEAM ARUNACHAL with the objective of ‘Building the Arunachal Pradesh of our Dreams’.