NEW DELHI: Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Kalikho Pul and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, who is also a Member of Parliament from the same State, on Friday called on Union Minister of State PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh and discussed a wide range of issues related to Arunachal Pradesh.
Both Pul and Rijiju appreciated the efforts and hard work done by Dr Jitendra Singh for the progress of Northeast as a result of which, he has earned lot of goodwill in the region. They sought his intervention for increase in the budget allocations for Northeast and asked him to request the Finance Minister that the amount not spent out of Non-lapsable pool should be kept at the disposal of the DoNER Ministry instead of getting reverted to the general exchequer.
Chief Minister Pul sought the attention of Dr Jitendra to the problem of air connectivity to which Dr Singh said that land had already been identified for an airport in Itanagar, but the former State Government later gave the option of another land at a different location, as a result of which the project had got delayed. Chief Minister Pul assured Dr Jitendra that the present State Government was willing to have an airport at the original location and at land already selected for the purpose. In response to Pul’s plea for building a railway corridor along the foothills in the State, Dr Singh said, the matter has been discussed with the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and the plan is to have a broad-gauge railway track in all the North-Eastern States, perhaps excepting Sikkim for the time being.
Dr Singh also referred to the issue of delayed submission of Utilization Certificates (UCs) leading to the delay in projects and said, the DoNER Ministry is working on different options to expedite the process. He suggested that the Resident Commissioner of the State should be directed to keep a regular direct contact with the DoNER Ministry and do liaising between the concerned Ministry and the respective State Government, and the DoNER Ministry acting as a facilitator.