Itanagar: In the year going by, the Congress-ruled government in Arunachal Pradesh swelled its strength from 46 to 55 in the 60-member Legislative Assembly with the joining of 4 AITC and 5 NCP legislators.
With this, the ruling party’s position has altered to Congress-55, BJP-3, AITC and Independent one each.
Induction of Arunachal Pradesh West Parliamentary Constituency MP Ninong Ering into the Union Ministry as a Minister of State for Minority Affairs was also noteworthy during the year.
BJP’s national president Nitin Gadkari paid a maiden visit to the state and held Saheed Shradhanjali Yatra, in memory of those martyrs, who laid their lives in 1962 Indo-China war from Guwahati to Bumla in Tawang, organized by the state unit of BJP.
Crimes against women in the state were also marginally raised during the year. This year it has been recorded 106 so far as against 105 in previous year. More than 700 hours of work were lost due to bandh calls given by various organisations in 2012 besides, losing of a huge amount of money in the state government’s coffer.
However, the state government and administration has taken strong steps against the organisations to prevent illegal bandhs calls.
The underground activities in the insurgency dominated Lohit, Tirap and Changlang districts also surfaced because of incidents of intra faction group rivalry between NSCN (IM) -(K), abduction, and killings were reported during the year. The security forces had arrested more than 30 hardcore UG activists from different parts of these two districts.
The Central government has granted an amount of Rs. 129 crores under special package for modernisation of police forces for Tirap and Changlang districts.
The Nabam Tuki-led Congress government had began the year by sending a strong message of peace amongst the 26 tribes of the state resolving the contentious Pradeep Thakur issue here in February. The issue was finally solved following public apology of Thakur.
The leading national daily’s reporter Thakur’s controversial statement against the major Nyishi tribe on leadership issue was pushed the state towards unrest for nine months since its publication in its web portal in May 2011.
The year saw creation of Longding district, bifurcating Tirap district, as 17th district of the state.
The two shocking flash floods within a span of three months had affected most of the districts mainly in the eastern parts of the state.
The devastating floods had claimed about 30 lives and swallowed a huge area of cultivated land, including a habitation.
Repeated attacks on newspersons and media houses in the passing year has left a question mark about the future of the fourth pillar of democracy.
The senior Associate Editor of English daily, The Arunachal Times, Tongam Rina was shot from behind by unidentified youths in front of her office in July.
The office of the Echo of Arunachal, another leading newspaper house of the state, was also ransacked and its Associate Editor, Tapan Kumar Das assaulted by a few persons in November.
The state government has adopted the PPP (Private Public Partnership) policy by inviting NEDFI and the Rubber Board to go ahead with their plans to implement and support projects in cooperation with the state government to develop agriculture and allied sectors in the state.
The state’s economy largely depends on agriculture and its allied sectors. To give more thrust in these sectors and also to ensure food security to the needy farmers, the state government has launched Chief Minister’s Agri-Mechanization Programme (CMAMP) and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) programs to the poor farmers.
To cope up with growing unemployment, the government has also approved few schemes to create gainful self-employment opportunities to the unemployed youths in tea, rubber cultivation and announced 25 per cent subsidy on the purchase of commercial vehicle by unemployed youths. Keeping view on below par education scenario, the government has passed Bills in the Assembly for setting up better private and government universities, medical colleges and higher technical institutions in different parts of the state for making way better education facility in front of the students mainly who were travelling outside.
With an aim to provide quality health care to BPL households, the Chief Minister recently launched Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme in 10 districts of the state by signing an MoU with the Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Company.
Tuki led a delegation to attend the North East India-Bangladesh Business Conclave held in Dhaka as a part of Indo-Bangla Trade Fair 2012. The International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) selected Tuki this year for a Lifetime Achievement Award for his positive approach and various developmental activities in the state.
In the development of sports, the government has adopted its own Sports Policy with a vision to the complete facelift of sporting arena through target oriented action plans. The state has also organised National Taekwondo and National Karate Championships in the year and signing of MoU with famous English club – The Reading FC for grooming of budding footballers of the state are few achievements in sports arena. (UNI)