Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Monday described the Deputy Commissioners as the ‘driver’ of their respective districts, who can either ‘drive” the district to prosperity or its doom.
Chairing the 10th Arunachal e-Pragati review meeting with the administrative heads of all the districts of the state at Pasighat, headquarters of East SiaNg district, Khandu said the fate of a district and its people depends upon the ability and sincerity of its DC.
He urged the DCs to conduct monthly e-Pragati review meetings with all concerned officials of the district and work on the issues taken up at the state level e-Pragati meetings.
“Taking into account your action taken reports, I have to present a cumulative action-taken report of the state in our bi-monthly review meetings presided over by the Prime Minister,” he informed.
Khandu reminded the DCs of the ‘Pakke Declaration’ adopted by the state government that envisages
a multi-sectoral approach towards low emission and climate-resilient development through five broad themes or the PanchDharas.
The themes are environment, forest and climate change; health and well-being of all; sustainable and adaptive living; livelihoods and opportunities; and evidence generation and collaborative action.
He said these rest on 75 strategies including protecting forest cover, restoring degraded forests, reducing health vulnerability because of climate change and extreme weather events, developing master plans for all urban areas reflective of local climate change-induced risks, adopting efficient irrigation measures, promoting entrepreneurship, among others.
Asserting that Arunachal Pradesh can exploit its forest and natural resources to significantly contribute towards fulfillment of the targets envisaged by India in pursuance of the Paris Agreement
on Climate Change, Khandu exhorted the DCs to work on it in their respective districts.
The Chief Minister also raised two important schemes launched by the Centre – Svamitva and SVANidhi – that need urgent push from the state government.
The Svamitva scheme is a reformative step towards establishment of clear ownership of property
in rural inhabited areas, by mapping of land parcels using drone technology and providing ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners.
SVANidhi aims to provide affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods adversely affected by Covid-19-induced lockdowns.
Though in Arunachal Pradesh the process of providing land rights to the people is still at a nascent stage, Khandu said the state government expects its administrative officers along with elected representatives to come out with a solution to implement the benevolent scheme.
“We all have to work together to implement these schemes and I have full confidence in our deputy commissioners,” he said. Other agenda discussed in today’s meeting include Ayushman Bharat, Jal Jeevan Mission, Mission Shisha, land acquisition matters, National Horticulture Mission and One-District OneProduct.
