ITANAGAR, Sep 27: State Legislative Assembly Speaker Pasang Dorjee Sona who is a part of the Indian delegation attending the on-going 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference at Munyonyo in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on Friday took part in a workshop on the topic ‘Combating Rapid Urbanisation and Rural Decline’.   

Sona spoke at length on the topic with reference to the issues faced by Arunachal Pradesh in particular and India & the Commonwealth countries in general. Expressing grave concern over rapid migration of people from rural to urban areas, Sona said that it’s a trend noticed in recent past and the scenario is quite universal. While highlighting that cause of this mass exodus is for want of basic amenities, he said that most rural areas of the Commonwealth nations are not fully equipped with employment, cultural and social opportunities. Due to absence of big, medium or small industries and also due to social and economic pressures, people from backward areas are compelled to move towards urbanized centres in search of jobs. In order to mitigate the problems of rapid urbanization, Speaker suggested for development of comprehensive policies that would assure access to necessary public services by the rural masses. “If we really want to bring an end to the movement of our rural masses, we should bring in development to their doorsteps. Once development comes in, this will offer job opportunities and will also improve their socio-economic conditions and perhaps lower the tendency of movement from rural to urban areas,” Speaker added.

He opined that setting up of small, medium and big industries, sufficient number of schools, engineering colleges, hotel management institutions, skill and vocational development institutions, hospitals with modern facilities, rail & road networks, airways  in rural areas should be given due importance with greater emphasis on tourism. Speaker Media Cell