Thai team to visit Arunachal in Jan: Khandu

Itanagar, Oct 12: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu has asserted that a four-member team from Thailand, led by its Commerce Minister, is expected to visit the state either in January or February next year.

The proposed visit by the foreign team would be to explore the possibility of investment, particularly in hydropower, tourism, horticulture and food processing sectors.

Interacting with mediapersons here yesterday in the presence of his cabinet colleagues and Governor K Shankaranarayanan, the Chief Minister said during the recent North East Investment Opportunities Meet from October 1-4 at Bangkok, many entrepreneurs had expressed interest in investing provided there was no law and order problem in the state, besides insisting on connectivity, particularly air links.

The state government had also received proposals from Bangkok, Mumbai and Karnataka for establishing five-star hotels in the state.

One of the proposals for setting up hotels at Bhalukpong, Dirang, Mechuka and Tawang, with chopper service for the tourists, against annual royality for the state government, had a pre-condition for permission to start a casino, Mr Khandu informed.

Besides, many NRIs evinced interest to pump in huge funds, provided a conducive industrial policy was evolved, he said, adding that the new industrial policy had increased the leasing period of land from 40 to 99 years to woo investors.

The Chief Minister lauded the Governor for his keen interest and support to accelerate the process of development, particularly his vision to set up various professional medical and engineering colleges for the benefit of the state.

He said the last State Planning Board meeting had decided to phase out appointments under the plan head to reduce the burden and enlighten the public about the exact funds spent for development.

''About 15,000 jobs have been created under the plan head and the annual salary and wage burden have reached around Rs 600 to 700 crore. Besides, the annual plan allocation of Rs 1,320 crore has been reduced to Rs 1,200 crore for shortfall of Rs 95 crore in revenue earning,'' the Chief Minister added.

Moreover, Mr Khandu said following a thorough scrutiny of 1,200 incomplete projects since 1980, a memorandum pointing out the cause of delay and lapses on behalf of the state government was submitted to the Centre with a plea to sanction Rs 2,390 crore for their completion.

To a query, he replied that the funds were earmarked for setting up three district courts this year.

UNI