As 2018 comes to an end today, let us have a peep back into how the year was for Arunachal Pradesh. To be candid, the year, second of Pema Khandu’s chief ministership, saw a resurgence in developmental activities taking place at a faster pace. While the year started with bad news like the rape and murder of a 13-year-old school girl in Chongkham circle of Namsai district, a five-year-old girl child found raped and murdered at Namgo Mishmi village in Wakro circle on February 18 with two more rape cases of minors surfaced.

 

Barring these incidents, the state was quite calm on the law and order front. However, the positive side of developments took an upper hand eclipsing the bad news with Chief Minister Khandu breathing a fresh air into development activities with introduction of many innovative schemes like Sarkar Aapke Dwar, Arunachal Rising campaign, etc. At the same time the state was also brought into the aviation map of India when an Alliance Air ATR-42 flight took off from Pasighat in May. However, the full-fledged Hollongi Greenfield Airport is still in the planning stage owing to a plethora of problems, mostly local made.

The pro-active role played by the state Governor BD Mishra had seen the setting up of state’s first Sainik School in Pasighat and many more are in the pipeline. What was worrisome is the slow progress of the Trans Arunachal Highway. While the work progressed well in the eastern parts of the state, the same got mired in controversies and corruption on land compensation issues in the western part of the state. With Central government sanctioning another Rs. 9000 crore worth of highway projects, Chief Minister has clearly warned against any misdeeds. Through the Sarkar aapke dwar programmes, a silent revolution was ushered in the rural areas of the state and the villagers of remote and far-flung areas benefitted immensely from the camps. But much remains to be done for the state to make it a best developed state in the North East and India so that it justifies the name “the Land of Rising Sun.”