OUR CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) Dr BD Mishra on Sunday called for adopting innovative methods of monitoring and evaluation of developmental projects to ensure that funds are optimally utilized to achieve its objective.
Addressing the 70th Plenary of North Eastern Council (NEC) in Guwahati, Mishra proposed creation of a dashboard by NEC in association with the State's planning department for real time monitoring of the uploaded projects. Highlighting the challenges before the State Government, he also suggested ways forward in implementation of welfare measures and projects.
Stating that the NEC has been an important developmental partner for Arunachal Pradesh for decades, Mishra stressed that the NEC must keep its guidelines adaptable enough to adapt to the changing needs of the region, an official communiqué informed here.
"The important sectors like sports, water resources and flood management should receive adequate attention in addition to sectors like power, roads and school education. While allocating resources, due consideration should be given to the expanse of the State's geographical area, its remoteness, and the present status of development," he emphasized.
The Governor said that there is a need to increase the allocation to NEC in a phased manner and requested the DoNER and the council to support the developmental needs of Arunachal Pradesh by ensuring that the resources allocated match the financial requirements to bridge the huge developmental gap of the State.
He added that while financial resources are an important area, the other major area to work is developing the absorption capacity of the States in the region by training and handholding.
"There is a huge scope for development of the entire North Eastern region which can be achieved with the support of NEC by becoming the think-tank of the region," he said.
The Governor said that NEC can emerge as Niti Aayog of North-East by providing guidance and assistance to the States and suggested that NEC should start preparing a road map for 'North-East 2047' in a ten-year rolling manner and present the same during the next plenary meeting.
Mishra informed that the State used the Covid-19 pandemic period to rejuvenate the health sector by converging resources from all sources and reduced the human resource gap in the health sector from 33 per cent to 6 per cent.
He proposed to the NEC and DoNER to consider supporting the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science (TRIHMS), the lone medical college of the State, not only for capital expenditure but for revenue expenditure also.
For a fund-constrained State like Arunachal, it is becoming difficult day by day to provide resources for the tertiary health care sector as the State is investing in primary and secondary health sectors, he said.
Highlighting border area development, Mishra informed that the State Government has launched the 'Golden Jubilee Border Village Illumination Programme' with a mission to construct 50 micro-hydel projects in remote border villages to provide continuous electricity to the villagers as also the Armed Forces.
A comprehensive proposal for development of border areas within 50 kilometers from LAC is under active consideration of the Centre, he said.
Mishra also apprised the council about the initiatives of the State Government in various sectors including counter-insurgency, police modernization, border area development, health, education, preservation of cultural heritage, climate resilience, reforms in governance, skill development and entrepreneurship promotion.
He added that as per the Prime Minister's doctrine of 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat', Arunachal Pradesh has taken up a number of commendable initiatives towards self-sufficiency.
"The State has launched its own Atma Nirbhar schemes that will empower the people of rural areas. We have also made good progress in start-up and entrepreneurship development sectors that have already started bearing fruit," he added.
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