All Arunachal villages along int'l borders to be developed with all basic facilities: CM

Itanagar, April 24 (IANS) Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Monday that all Arunachal Pradesh villages along the borders with China, Myanmar and Bhutan will be fully developed with all basic facilities.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a three-day training programme commemorating the National Panchayati Raj Day, the Chief Minister said that there are significant number of villages alsong Arunachal's 1,817 km international borders with China (1,080 km), Myanmar (520 km) and Bhutan (217 km).

"We will also develop all the other villages by convergence of state and Central government schemes and programmes," he said.

Khandu asserted that the state government with the support and guidance of the Centre is committed to develop each village of the state.

He cited the recent visit of Home Minister Amit Shah to Kaho, the 'first' village on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Anjaw district, where Shah launched the Centre's ambitious 'Vibrant Village Programme' (VVP) for all-round development of the border villages.

The Chief Minister advocated nine parameters to achieve the set localised sustainable development goals (LSDGs) based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations for the development of villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

He said that the nine parameters as prescribed by the Department of Panchayati Raj provide a perfect roadmap for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) to plan and implement development projects for their respective segments.

The nine parameters are - clean and green village, water sufficient village, child friendly village, healthy village, poverty free village, self-sufficient infrastructure village, socially secured and socially just village, village with good governance and gender equality village.

"In accordance with the 17 SDGs adopted by the United Nations, of which 15 are relevant for Arunachal Pradesh, the state government has been preparing the annual budget to achieve these goals. Likewise, the PRIs can now plan to achieve these nine parameters prescribed in the LSDGs for wholesome development of the villages," the Chief Minister said.

While informing that Rs 123 crore was accorded to the PRIs last year, Khandu said that in this year's budget (2023-24), the fund for Panchayati Raj has been increased to Rs 143 crore.

He also informed that 10 per cent of the state's own resources, in addition to the finance commission grants, is being accorded to PRIs.

"In fact, there's no drought of funds with the state government. Things are not progressing well because the planning system is not perfect yet," he said.

Khandu reiterated his suggestion for convergence of similar schemes and programmes involving different departments into one and executing them at the grass-roots level.

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