Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday called upon the senior officers of the government to put extra effort to accomplish the unfinished work of last two-and-half-years of his government and push forward the state to newer heights in all the sectors in the coming days.
Khandu, who was addressing an interactive meeting of all the commissioners and secretaries of the state government at his office in Itanagar, said since the present government has emerged with huge mandate, the people’s expectations and aspirations are very high from the government.
“When expectations are high, then responsibility on us become bigger. The good work of the government in last tenure has well been reciprocated by the people of the state which resulted in giving us another chance to serve and work for them,” said Khandu.
Making clear his intentions, Khandu revealed his government’s priority sectors where the state government would focus more in addition to other important sectors.
Efficient law and order management, modernisation of police and policing, strengthening of law enforcement, health and education, transparency in governance by curbing corruption and solving unemployment issue by generating employment avenues in government as well as private sectors emerged as few priority sectors divulged by Khandu.
The chief minister opined for working out ways and means to tap the rich untapped resources of the state in spheres of mines and minerals, forest produces, tourism, hydro power, agriculture and allied sectors and such other potential areas to generate revenue as well as to generate gainful employment for unemployed educated youths.
He called for a robust mechanism to capitalise this vision of the government.
Khandu further requested the senior officers to work on creating a congenial atmosphere for investments to come from outside which initially warrants peaceful business establishment, lesser hiccups in official correspondences and a welcoming society which is free of law and order problem.
Reiterating that the government has decided to do away with State Annual Development Agenda (SADA) and Sate Infrastructural development Fund (SIFD) from this year and discourage individual schemes, the chief minister categorically directed the head of departments to finish the budget exercise in war footing so that budget scheduled from July 8 next incorporates all schemes which were earlier taken up in SADA or SIDF.
This will ensure transparency and quicken the execution, the chief minister said.
Further stating that collective and coordinated approach will help in overcoming the challenges, Khandu asked the administrative reforms department to work on re-distribution of manpower and rationalize according to need based.
He observed that few departments have excessive manpower while others are facing acute shortage of employees, which apparently hampers the government functioning. Khandu also asked the department heads to ensure punctuality in office timing and initiate appropriate measures to conduct regular departmental promotion committee meeting in every six months.
Pointing out on the poor performance of few departments on state flagship programmes, he asked the concerned commissioners and secretaries to tighten up belts and ensure cent percent execution of state as well as central schemes.
Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein pitched for a concerted effort in having proper coordination, discussion and planning for achieving the desired goal of development.
“A sense of social involvement and responsibility is required to overcome the challenges” he said while acknowledging his association with many senior officers during his 25 years of political carrier.
He asked the top bureaucrats to make sure that they take periodical reviews of the department, conduct regular check and balance in directorate functioning and invite the directorate level officers during preparations of plans and policies so that it is foolproof.
Mein further opined for extensive use of digital technology to ease work load and to ensure effective and smooth delivery of services to the people.
Chief secretary Satya Gopal assured that the constraints and challenges that come the way in accomplishing the objective of the government would be overcome by collective efforts of all heads of departments in the spirit of ‘Team Arunachal’.