DREE Festival- Celebration kicked off at Ziro
Ziro
Dree Festival Celebration Kicked off at Ziro with the salute the ingenious forefathers of Apatani people who devised such a magnificent cohesive social set up and social engineering that has withstood the test of time in unifying the people despite tremendous onslaught of rapid modernization in this 21st century of today’, said Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, who grace the Ziro Dree Festival Celebration as Chief Guest here today amidst a mammoth gathering.
The celebration is a manifestation of the spirit of mutual understanding, camaraderie and unity under a common platform similar to celebrations of mainland Hindus, Muslims and Christians with love and peace as its pre-requisites he said, while advocating maintaining continuity of the same in its pristine traditional form citing loss of culture as loss of identity.
Wishing for a pest free and bumper harvest of crops, Pul said that Apatanis were one of the most respected and progressive tribes of the state that produced innumerable officers and successful businessmen due to their hardworking nature specially by the ladies which need to be emulated by other tribesmen as well. ‘Similar to Apatanis, our state has rich oral traditions, customs, traditions and beliefs which need to be preserved and documented for future generations for which the state Govt. will provide the necessary funds’, he announced.
Assuring to change the road map of Ziro in the coming days, Pul appealed people to eschew political or party lines in developmental process and instead be a part of it. He stressed on early starting and completion of Trans Arunachal Highway from Potin to Daporijo and construction of a Civilian Terminal at the ALG to enable the fixed winged aircrafts to land for commercial purpose. He also advocated for maintenance of internal roads and distance between the dwelling houses at villages of fire-prone Ziro and Pasighat as well as appealed for taking ahead of Swach Bharat Abhiyan on a ‘Mission Mode’ for which Govt. would leave no stone unturned in providing the necessary fundings.
On a wider scale for the state, Pul pledged to arrest unemployment by creating more job opportunities for the youth and informed that Health Department was soon going to fill up vacancies for 2541 posts, 2000 by Police Department while Education Department would create posts of Arts, Music and Crafts teachers for all-round development of children.
Making the intentions of his Govt. clear in bringing about all-round development to doorsteps of the people, the chief minister announced that his Govt. was committed to work seriously for the people in letter and spirit. “Unlike the previous Govt., ours is a corruption free Govt. committed to serve the people rather than bullying or applying the pick and choose methods. We are now regularly paying stipends to students, bills to contractors and we will also implement the 7th Pay Commission as and when the Centre implements it for benefit of our service holders,” he announced to thunderous applause while adding his priority sectors are Health, Education and early completion of the TAH and East West Corridor Highways.
He further informed that the state Govt. had acquired two plots of land each at Delhi and Guwahati to construct Guest Houses for students and visiting sick patients and another one at Vellore for the sick patients. “My Govt. is a transparent one with easy accessibility to all aggrieved citizens for which ‘Janta Darbar’ has been conceived to hear their grievances and meet up their demands”, he explained, while declaring that Arunachal Pradesh would soon witness ‘real changes’ if he completes his full tenure of chief ministership.
Meanwhile, responding to a series of memorandums submitted by various NGO’s and people of Apatani Plataeu, Pul assured to set up a Cold Storage at the foothills of Lower Subansiri District for benefit of local Kiwi growers and vegetable farmers of the twin four Districts, opening of a Police Station at the newly created SDO post at Old Ziro after consultation with the DGP, additional grant of Rs two crores to the already sanctioned 1 crore for a new Dree Ground under the State Infrastructure Development Fund, providing of a corpus fund by state Govt. to Achkuru Society working for the cause of orphans and destitute, renovation works of Govt. Higher Secondary School with boundary wall and District Hospital with provision for modern instruments.
Guest of Honour and Parliamentary Secretary for Home, Pankga Bage appealed the youth to be torch bearers of their society and to lead in protection, preservation and promotion of their rich customs and traditions. He said that Dree festival celebration was the sign of their identity and to preserve it in perpetuity. The young legislator also announced Rs 5 lakhs from his MLALAD for Dree ground development purpose.
While informing the essence of Dree festival, chief patron of the celebration committee and local legislator Tage Taki pleaded the chief minister to sanction independent Additional Deputy Commissioner post to Old Ziro Township with more than 15000 population that came into existence in 1951, additional grant for a new and wider Dree ground and conversion of District Hospital Ziro into a State Referral Hospital.
The daylong celebration was attended among others by MLA’s Tamar Murtem, Markio Tado, Likha Saaya, DC and SP Ziro, all HoD’s, senior public leaders, panchayat leaders, gaon buras, students and filled with cultural extravaganza.
Earlier, the chief minister and the visiting guests visited the General Hospital and Govt. Higher Secondary School and interacted with the inmates and staffs.
