Arunachal's financial position improving: Governor

Itanagar, Mar 21: With Centre's concern towards Northeast, the financial position of Arunachal Pradesh has considerably improved in the last one year, according to Governor S K Singh.

Addressing the five-day budget session of the state assembly beginning today, the governor said that during 2004-05, the state's total plan outlay was Rs. 760.35 crore, while for 2005-06 it was pegged at Rs 957.49 crore.

The plan size for Arunachal for 2006-07 has been put at Rs 1100 crore, he informed adding, the Ministry of DoNER had sanctioned 12 new projects for the state with an estimated cost of Rs. 123.95 crore and the North East Council (NEC) had sanctioned 11 new projects for Rs. 6.26 crore.

Exhorting the members of the house for their concerted efforts to accelerate the pace of development in the state, Mr. Singh claimed that the law and order was well maintained by the present government and the state remained largely peaceful despite small provocations.

Underscoring the need for development, the governor stressed on proper planning at various levels to achieve the desired results to the efforts made by the government.

''My government continues to promote mechanization of agriculture by providing subsidy to the farmers for purchase of such machineries besides providing fertilizers and better variety of seeds for higher yield,''. In the year 2005-06 a total of 58 water projects were implemented and 21 new projects have been approved by the state level committee, he informed adding in order to impart training to farmers, three Krishi Vigyan Kendras have been established in the state.

The governor informed that the state had also taken up close to 60,000 hectares under fruit cultivation and another 15,000 hectares for production of spices. Under Swabhiman Rojgar Yojana, 1840 un-employed educated youths have been provided one hectare of horticulture garden each for self-employment, he informed. Referring to the poor road connectivity in the state,the governor informed that funds from Centre under Central Road Funds(CRF), DoNER, NEC and Border Area Development(BAD) were too meager to meet the demands of the state. Despite all constraints, public Works Department had taken up 26 road projects under CRF, ten under DoNER and three under NEC in the state.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the state had not only increased substantially the enrollment in the primary level but also had contained the dropout rate significantly, he claimed. Under Education Guarantee scheme close to 1300 new schools were opened at various habitations in the far-flung areas and about 230 new primary schools have been opened, he added.

''The major decisions taken by my government related to implementation of Arunachal Pradesh Rural Unemployed Gurantee Act, which will go a long way to improve the economic conditions of the rural unemployed youth,'' he said adding, the state government had also approved enhancement of minimum wages of labourers in the state.

UNI