Vice President for proper strategy to tap Arunachal's potential

Itanagar, Nov 27 (UNI) Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, who is presently on his maiden tour to Arunachal Pradesh, has advocated for a pragmatic strategy and planning to tap the state's vast potential.

Dr Ansari was of the view that the Planning Commission should change its population-based funding criteria to speed up the development of the thinly-populated state, official sources said here today.

He also advocated priority treatment for this land-locked state, considering its sensitiveness and uniqueness.

The Vice President, accompanied by Governor Gen (retd) J J Singh and Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, had gone to Tawang yesterday and visited the famous Tawang Monastery and paid homage to war heroes of the 1962 Chinese aggression at the Korea Brigade War Memorial.

Dr Ansari this morning went to Kibitho, the last Indian village at Anjaw district along the Indo-Sino border, the sources said.

Before leaving for Kibitho, the Vice President took part in a plantation programme at the Raj Bhavan here.

''We are adding another green area to the gifted land,'' he said while planting a sapling of Arucaria in the front lawn of the Bhavan.

Yesterday, the Dr Ansari also played Golf in the course established by the Governor in the Raj Bhavan, the sources added.

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