CHANGLANG, Mar 24: Chief Minister Pema Khandu today commenced his 4-day Changlang tour marked with inauguration of a number of infra facilities.

Khandu was accompanied by Home Minister Bamang Felix, Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte, PWD Eastern Zone Adviser Phosum Khimhun, DGP RP Upadhyay and other dignitaries. Tourism Adviser Laisam Simai joined him at Jairampur. On arrival, the CM inaugurated Block II of the District Secretariat, a double-lane composite bridge over Tirap river, CC pavements, 2x250 KW Tissu Ph-II Mini Hydel Project at Jungsam village and a new Circle office of Kantang. He also inspected the under-construction Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya school building and inaugurated the new police station buildings in Changlang, Namtok, Jairampur, Nampong and Manmao. In his address at public meetings in Changlang and Jairampur, Khandu said that the opening of new police stations and making several of them operational is aimed at speedy clearance of tourism circuits in the region. About 21 police stations have been renovated and newly established recently in the three districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding (TCL), he informed. 

TCL districts being mineral-rich, locals should be able to derive maximum benefits from the revenue generated and an appropriate policy is being worked out so that the locals of areas from where natural resources are harnessed are benefited most. “State government is attempting to revive coal mining in the region and tap other natural resources such as hydropower and oil for maximizing revenue generation to minimise Central dependency,” Khandu informed. TCL districts were earlier deprived of the central flagships programmes due to lack of transparency and information, but now with the decentralized policy initiated by the state they are gradually witnessing the pouring of Central schemes, the CM said, assuring also that Changlang being one of the highly populated districts will receive priority in distribution of funds. 

Reminding that the state government has declared 2021 as the Year of Education, the CM opined that efforts to achieve quality education should be participatory. Seeking community participation in achieving the goal, he urged the locals to take an active part in improving the education scenario by regular visits to schools and working with the Education department.

Later in the evening, during an interaction with the local government officials, Khandu exhorted them to give their best of services. CMO