Chief Minister Pema Khandu launched Arunachal Rising campaign – to enhance the dissemination of govt schemes at the grassroots level using print media, social media, and audio-visual mode.
Itanagar
Chief Minister Pema Khandu today chaired the inaugural session of the 2-day annual workshop on Annual Development Agenda 2018-19 attended by ministers, parliamentary secretaries, MLAs, commissioners, deputy commissioners, secretaries and other top officials from the state government.
The Chief Minister in his address said that for the first time an inclusive review exercise is being undertaken and roadmap chalked out for ensuring that all announcements made in the budget are executed and finished, in entirety, within the stipulated time frame during this financial year. He said the objective of the workshop is also to strengthen the feedback system involving deputy commissioners and the departments to sort out issues hindering the smooth implementation of schemes and projects at the field level.
The Chief Minister said through such exercises the institution of deputy commissioners will be strengthened and decision making at grassroots level will be empowered, a planning system that was prevalent when Arunachal was a union territory. He hoped to see that the old grassroots level of planning system of union territory days is restored in due course of time expressing concern over the present planning process of taking decisions at the top level, which if allowed to continue will jeopardise the whole system.
Khandu said deputy commissioners have been delegated with maximum power and responsibilities for making the decentralised planning process a success story. About 25 flagships programmes and 138 announcements have been announced in the budget, which is to be implemented as per the guidelines prepared. The CM requested the deputy commissioners to play proactive role in successful implementations of these schemes and to take monthly review meetings and regular monitoring of works.
Emphasising on the leadership role that a deputy commissioner could undertake, Khandu recalled the services of few officers who went out of their way trying to bring changes in people’s lives. Deputy Commissioner Neerunanda posted in Tawang in 1970s took the first initiative to build the existing Tawang-Lumla road purely out of donations from the public without using a penny from govt sources. He also cited example of Armstrong Pame, an IAS officer from Manipur who made similar venture and expressed that he wishes to see similar leadership attitude in other officers too.
Khandu informed that the effort of the state government to have separate civil service cadre for Arunachal under UPSC could become a possibility. He said the matter is being talked at the political level in the centre and may materialise after the 2019 elections.
Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein in his speech called upon all to ensure that the initiatives taken by the Government reach to the last mile of the society and called to work in a coordinated manner to ensure that the new schemes are implemented well on the ground.
He stated that although the government takes many pro-people initiatives, many a times, but it has been observed that many of the plans and policies of the government are not implemented due to lack of coordination and ignorant. He added that for ensuring success of these schemes and programmes, it is important that all the stake holders right from the people’s representatives to the departmental officers and Deputy Commissioners are sensitized on the priority areas of the government.
It is equally important to hold consultations on the important issues confronting the development process of the State and sort out matter across the table to the extent possible and with this objective, that the Finance, Planning and Investment Department has organized this workshop, Mein said. He informed that State Government had constituted 25 committees to frame guidelines for major budget schemes. In the recently held cabinet, majority of the guidelines have been approved so that the schemes can roll out on field immediately.
He also asked the Deputy Commissioners to conduct Jan Sunvai Sammelan on the 1st week of every month in different locations of the districts and reach out to the people and disseminates the programmes & policies of the govt to the last man in the villages so that they mail the benefits.
While informing that NITI AAYOG has given top most priority to ensure time bound transformation of 115 Aspiration districts which have been identified by Government of India on the basis of Key performance Indicators. These districts on transformation will become model district & path finder for others. He requested all stakeholders especially Secretaries/ Commissioners to proactively act on this issue and converge the efforts of Govt of India, Niti Ayog and State Government so that the requirement for transformation in identified sectors can be fulfilled rapidly.
Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok, Chief Secretary Satya Gopal, Development Commissioner Kaling Tayeng and others also spoke on the occasion.
Earlier the CM launched the Monitoring Dashboard – http://arunachalmonitoring.com, which is an automated centralized web based application to aid the process of monitoring of all developmental projects.
He also launched the Arunachal Rising campaign – to enhance the dissemination of govt schemes at the grassroots level using print media, social media, and audio-visual mode. The objective of the campaign would be to highlight positive work of the government, improve transparency and improve feedback system in the govt.
