ITANAGAR, Dec 17: Raising of the Arunachal Scouts in the line of Ladakh Scouts has already been accepted in principle by the Central Government. However, little has been done so far towards its realization. Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu today once again impressed upon the Centre to expedite the process and raise the force with at least four battalions.
During a meeting with Union Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Joint Secretary and senior Army and BRO officers who called on him here this morning, Khandu reasoned that raising the force would not only contribute to effective border management during peace as well as operations but also solve unemployment problem of the State to a great extent. He further urged the visiting secretary to impress upon the Centre to push forward the proposal of an ALG at Tawang, which, he said, is very much important from defence and tourism perspective.
The Defence officials had called on the Chief Minister basically to discuss matters pertaining to land acquisition for the Army, transfer of Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs), progress of BRO roads besides Arunachal Scouts.
Kumar, while appreciating the State government for promptly responding to their request for land acquisition for setting up of defence infrastructure at various areas in the State, assured to resolve the land rent issue for lands taken over by the Army and BRO. Kumar also requested the State government to hand over the ALGs to defence on as-it-is basis so that Army could start work on them at the earliest.
Khandu, meanwhile, reiterated his request for setting up elementary education facilities for children of BRO labourers, ensuring a planned future of the labourers and providing them with subsidized ration. He also urged the BRO to employ local youths in various technical and non-technical sectors and called upon the Defence Secretary to enhance the maintenance fund for roads allocated to BRO so that it could meet the rising costs in maintaining the all-weather roads.
Chief Secretary Tabom Bam, who also attended the high-level meeting, told the visiting officials that a high-level committee comprising Land Commissioner as chairman, Land Management Director, all DCs and representatives from Army as members would be constituted and the onus would lie on the Committee to expedite the land-acquisition process. He said that he would personally monitor the whole process and summon periodical review meetings to assess the status of progress. THE SENTINEL
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