Demand for Patkai Autonomous District Council in Arunachal may be considered: Rajnath

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday assured that the Centre would consider the demand for formation of Patkai Autonomous District Council covering the three sensitive districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding in Arunachal Pradesh.

This assurance came during a meeting of a delegation led by Chief Minister Nabam Tuki with the Union Home Minister at his residence in New Delhi today.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by all the Ministers and MLAs of the three districts and MPs Mukut Mithi (RS) and Ninong Ering (LS). Advisor to Union Home Minister Hare Krishna Paliwal was also present in the meeting.

While highlighting the need for an Autonomous Council to further the development in these sensitive insurgency affected districts, the Chief Minister gave a historical overview of the demand for Patkai Autonomous District Council.

He emphasised that this has been a long standing demand of the people of the state, particularly the people of the three districts who have been continuously affected by insurgency leading to poor socio-economic conditions and lack of development.

The Chief Minister highlighted that the region in the eastern most corner of Arunachal Pradesh requires a special focus to overcome development bottlenecks.

He observed that a special administrative structure in the form of an Autonomous Council would greatly help in addressing the challenges of development and governance.

The demand for formation of Patkai Autonomous Council was passed by the Assembly in 2004 and 2007 and the Cabinet approved it in the year 2013.

The proposal was then sent to the Union Home Ministry and a committee headed by Joint Secretary (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs was constituted by the then UPA Government, who had visited the three districts in February, 2014. Since then, there has been no communication from the Home Ministry.