Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker Passang Dorjee Sona has urged all the legislators representing constituencies along the India-China border to forward suggestions to check migration of people from border villages to urban areas.
The Speaker made this appeal while chairing a meeting with the MLAs from the border constituencies here on Saturday. The meeting was convened to discuss various issues pertaining to the developmental needs of the people in border areas.
Sona, who represents the Mechukha seat bordering China, said people living along the international borders are still devoid of basic amenities owing to which they migrate to urban areas in search of a better life.
“In order to check the people’s exodus, the border areas need to be developed on priority,” he said while seeking suggestions from the members.
Legislators Phurpa Tsering, Mutchu Mithi, Dasanglu Pul, Lokam Tassar, Tsering Tashi and Talem Taboh who attended the meeting echoed similar concerns and suggested a common platform of legislators from border areas to highlight the issues, as individual requests are not effective.
Accordingly, the members unanimously constituted a forum – Indo-China Border Development Legislators’ Forum of Arunachal Pradesh – with Sona as Chairman, Koloriang (Kurung Kumey district) MLA Lokam Tassar as convenor and the others as members.
During the course of the discussion, the members also suggested modification of the existing Border Area Development Programme (BADP) guidelines, fund enhancement and submission of block-wise utilisation certificates instead of the existing collective one, which according to them “unnecessarily hampers the implementation of the BADP schemes.”
The legislators also decided to submit a memorandum to the chief minister soon highlighting their grievances to be taken up at the appropriate level.
