BY TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, APRIL 07, 2018: THE 15th Finance Commission while on a four-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh, held meetings the State Governor, Chief Minister and other officials to gain insights into opportunities for and challenges to development of the State. The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Mr Pema Khandu, made detailed presentations giving in depth understanding of the efforts made by the State for the development of the State and its projection for the award period of the 15th Finance Commission. He also urged the commission to consider innovative measures for vertical devolutions, specially for the North Eastern States, looking at their special requirements.

The State Government team led by the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary gave a presentation outlining the opportunities and challenges for the state and outlined broad contours of their demands. In their presentation, they sought that Arunachal Pradesh be seen from the viewpoint of its peculiar geographical location, hilly terrain, hostile topography, limited working season, lack of infrastructure which creates cost disabilities. Such aspect needed attention.

Also, In North Eastern Region, Arunachal Pradesh stood second after Tripura in respect of total capital expenditure incurred as percentage of GSDP. In this regard they claimed that the state needed more funds for infrastructure development. Also, on account of the lack of investment from private sector and low resource base, Government is the major provider of employment and also funding to create infrastructure. They also mentioned that physical & digital connectivity is the biggest bottleneck for various developmental programmes.

The State Government also mentioned that Credit Deposit Ratio in the State is less than 30 against a norm of 60, which shows that the outreach of the banking sector and financial inclusion in the State had been very poor. Turning to natural diasters and their redressal, they stated that in a disaster prone State like Arunachal Prasdesh, the corpus of NDRF grant needed to be enhanced and ad hc releases should be available at the beginning of the year. Turning to environmental issues, it was stated that Environment Conservation, Biodiversity of the State and the challenges related to the Climate Change needed to be taken into account in the context of developmental efforts made. Additionally, special compensation be made under CAMPA to strike a balance between economic activities and environmental benefits accrued by the forest cover which is 80% of the State. Lastly, a Compensatory development plan was required for development of Tirap, Changlang and Longding Districts. The Chief Minister on behalf of the State Government submitted a detailed Memorandum to the Commission.

The Commission appreciated the constructive and useful suggestions made by the State Government towards empowerment of the States and their development. The Commission would finalise its recommendations by October 2019 after completing its discussions with all the State Governments, the Government of India and relevant stakeholders.