Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein stressed timely release of State’s share during the pre-Budget meeting convened by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently at New Delhi.
The pre-Budget meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Jaitley on Thursday, was convened to discuss the broad outline of the Union Budget and to understand the expectations and needs of States which was attended by the Finance Ministers of all the States.
Mein strongly presented the requirements of Arunachal Pradesh and submitted a memorandum mentioning all details to the Union Finance Minister and apprised him of the issues of the State.
In his address to the meeting, Arunachal Pradesh Deputy CM laid stress on timely release of the State’s share of central funds, the need to finance for rejuvenation of the ageing infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh.
Mein apprised the august gathering and the Union Finance Minister that funds are required by the State to finance maintenance of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) roads, developing Smart cities and funding of smart city ratio from 50:50 to 90:10 for the State, provide connectivity to the border areas specially near the international border with China, maintenance of frontier highways and solve issues like insurgency and drug trafficking.
According to sources, Union Finance Minister Jaitley had taken note of the points raised by the Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and had taken the demands of Arunachal Pradesh under active consideration.
Mein was accompanied by Development Commissioner Ashish Kundra and Special Secretary of Tax & Excise, Anirudh Saran Singh, sources added.
