CM reiterates for separate civil service cadre in Arunachal

Itanagar: Arunachal chief minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday strongly reiterated for separate IAS, IPS and IFS cadre for Arunachal Pradesh stating that this will set the pace of development in the state to pick up.

Speaking during the BJP state executive meeting in Itanagar at Jollang, the chief minister said due to absence of separate civil service cadre for Arunachal, the efficiency of state bureaucracy has been crippled.

He said civil service officers posted from Delhi come to Arunachal for short duration. By the time the officer has understood the nitty gritty of the system here, he is transferred elsewhere taking with him wealth of knowledge causing huge institutional memory loss.

Such continuous drain of knowledge keeps the pace of work slow and hindered, said the chief minister.

He also added that such hindrances in higher bureaucracy makes the officers at the directorate level to work according to their own whims and fancies without any sense of ownership and responsibilities.

Calling for such ineffective working culture to be destroyed forever, Khandu said if Arunachal gets its own separate civil service cadre, then sense of ownership and responsibility will prevail and also the institutional knowledge.

A resolution for separate civil service cadre for Arunachal was moved by chief minister, which was unanimously supported by all members present during the meeting.

Further sending a strong message to non-performing officers at the senior bureaucracy level, the chief minister declared that he would not hesitate to invoke the provisions of 56J of the central service rules.

“Officers failing to perform will be made to compulsory retire or even terminated. This is to send good message across and whip up efficiency level in the bureaucracy,” Khandu said.

The chief minister also declared that there is no commission system in works department, wherein huge percentage as commission is deducted by the department for release of payments to the contractors.

Calling to spread the message that such deducting of money from contractor is illegal, Khandu asked the citizens to report any such malpractice directly to the chief minister’s office for strict action to be initiated against the officers involved.

Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein also addressed the meeting and spoke on economic reforms announced by the Union government.

In his deliberations, Mein elaborated the various economic incentives and measures including taxation reforms undertaken by the Union government to boost further growth of the economy.

He informed that India is the world’s seventh largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) which is expected to grow by 7% in 2019 and 7.2% in the year 2020.

Mein also highlighted the benefits of implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Arunachal stating that its introduction has been a positive revenue event for the state.

“There is a growth in revenue collection in the State since implementation of GST and we have registered an exponential growth in the number of registered dealers”, Mein said.

He informed that the collection for Financial Year 2018-19 from GST was 569.41 crore which has witnessed almost 111% growth in comparison with 9 months of previous Financial Year.

He said, ‘”Arunachal Pradesh is one of the few States to record positive growth since implementation of GST and the State topped the list in the North Eastern States with collection of Rs. 304.74 crore in the current Financial Year 2019-20 (April-August).

State BJP president and Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao lauded the party members for their hard work and congratulated them for victories in the election as a result of their hard work.

Further, he impressed upon them that now there is great onus on the part of the party to fulfill the promises made to the people and satisfy their aspirations. “Winning the election is not the end but it is the beginning of the task of development,” said Gao, appealing all to follow the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and contribute their time and energy in nation building.

A presentation on abrogation of Article 370 was also a part of the meeting with Nampong MLA Laisam Simai as the speaker.

Simai narrated the history behind Article 370 and its various lacunas. He stressed that Article 370 was inserted as a temporary measure during Nehru’s time but in the last 70 years the temporary arrangement was never repealed by the Congress Government.

“The bold decision taken by the BJP Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which will liberate millions of Kashmiris who were under the yoke of Article 370, Simai said.

Among others to speak on the occasion were home minister Bamang Felix and BJP state vice-president Dominic Tadar.

During the meeting, the party also felicitated some its members who were exemplary in carrying out party activities using the ModiApp.