Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu kicks off campaign for panchayat and municipal polls

GUWAHATI: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu kicked off the election campaign for panchayat and municipal polls at Naharlagun in presence of State BJP President Biyuram Wahge, Home Minister Bamang Felix, BJP State General Secretary Zingnu Namchoom, Advisor to CM Tame Phassang and other top party officials.

Addressing a massive rally of BJP supporters, the CM thanked the people of Arunachal for electing unopposed 5,464 BJP candidates to the local body elections. The support shown by the people of Arunachal is ‘historic’ and is unprecedented in the history of local body elections in Arunachal, the CM said.



"Such a mandate was possible because the voters are intelligent today and have themselves witnessed the performance of the BJP party. There was a time when Northeast was neglected. But today the visit of central ministers to Northeast is frequent prompting development activities to go full swing. Under BJP, all big pending projects have been completed and many others on the verge of completion. Besides development, BJP has also focused on transformation and bringing transparency in governance," he said.

Beginning his campaign with municipal elections for Itanagar, the chief minister appealed to the people to vote for BJP as he felt that this election is crucial in electing good candidates for making the Smart City project a successful venture. He said much effort went in winning two proposals for Smart Cities in Arunachal making it the only state in the entire Northeast to be granted so.

Since Itanagar is the face of Arunachal, the CM said it is our duty to keep the capital city clean, orderly and beautiful. He promised to improve the law and order situation of the capital city and assured to increase CCTV installations and street lightings all over the city including along the four-lane highway.

He also promised to get all sectorial roads in the city to be paved with CC pavement. He said the airport for capital was languishing for a decade, but the work finally started after much effort went in resolving pending issues, finalizing the site and completing the ground survey. Under BJP, he said, rail services to the capital region have also increased.

Assuring devolution of powers to the municipal, the Chief Minister said the BJP government believes in decentralization of power. He said the municipality is presently allotted power over 13 subjects despite assurances earlier over 20. He assured to extend power over all 20 subjects if BJP is able to form the government in local municipal bodies.