Itanagar, Sep 15: Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday received the ‘State Democracy Award’, instituted by the State Election Commission (SEC), in the Best Performing District category.
On the occasion of International Democracy Day, Governor Brig (Retd) Dr B D Mishra also conferred the Best Performing Sub-Division award on Nafra in West Kameng district.
"These two places were selected for holding assembly and panchayat polls in 2019 in the most free and fair manner," State Election Commissioner Hage Kojeen said. The governor said International Democracy Day aims at promoting the government’s role in maintaining transparent democracy among member nations of the UN charter.
“The elections, by universal suffrage, free, fair and secret voting are foundations of democracy as enshrined in Article 21 (3) of Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he said.
Promoting democratic values of justice, liberty, equality and dignity of individual is vital to make the democracy strong and stable, he said and added that abiding by fundamental duties mentioned in the Constitution of India is equally important.
Mishra complimented the SEC for holding free, fair and transparent elections.
Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein in his speech highlighted the evolution of political process in Arunachal Pradesh. He narrated the history of the political journey in the State from the time when the British-India Government started to define the administrative jurisdiction by drawing an Inner Line in relation to the frontier tribes inhabiting the North Frontier Tract in the year 1875 to the formation of Statehood day in the year 1987. He also narrated the history of introduction of Panchayati Raj System in the year 1969 with the recommendation of Daying Ering Committee and evolution of State Legislative Assembly from the Agency Council.
“The state government is committed to protect and uphold the democratic values as enshrined in the Constitution of India,” Mein said. He further said that the State needs to have a state-of-the-art building for State Election Commission and assured to keep fund provision in next year’s budget for the same which would become an important asset of the State.
The DCM said that along with the rest of the country, electoral process in the State has under gone series of reformations for betterment. Major reformation in the electoral process in India came during the time of former Chief Election Commissioner of India, late T N Seshan with the introduction of photo identity card which has helped to streamline the electoral roll and had helped to do away with bogus voting and duplicity in voter lists.
Minister in-charge of Panchayati Raj, Bamang Felix also spoke on the occasion. State Election Commissioner Hage Kojeen, IAS (Retd.) delivered the welcome address. Earlier, the ‘State Democracy Awards’ and essay writing competition awards to commemorate the two decades of State Election Commission were presented to the awardees. 

A commemorative compendium, "Two decades of SEC", was released on the occasion.
Kojeen said the award would be given every year. 
The Department of Fine Arts and Music, Rajiv Gandhi University presented cultural items on the occasion.  
Large number of elected representatives of State Legislative Assembly, Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Bodies of Itanagar and Pasighat Municipalities, government officials and invitees attended the programme. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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