Centre assures to resolve Arunachal Security issues: Minister Pramanik

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik reiterated the strategic importance of Arunachal Pradesh for the country on Friday, promising to "work out every possibility for resolving security issues in the state."

The assurance was given by the minister, who is on his first visit to the state capital, during a meeting with police officers at the police headquarters in Arunachal.

Pramanik was briefed on various issues at the meeting, including insurgency in the TCL region, the operationalization of the Special Task Force (STF), police force modernization, narcotics, and police manpower shortages, among others.

Pramanik vowed to pursue the state's narcotics issue with the union home minister "for a prompt and definitive solution." He also promised to pursue the issue of boosting the Centre's financing ratio for the state's two sanctioned IRBns from 75:25 to 100 percent.

The union minister stated that Arunachal will be allocated sufficient funds under the Centre's new Vibrant Villages programme to help people living in villages along international borders.

He invited a delegation from the state's home department to visit New Delhi, led by Home Minister Bamang Felix, with proposals for the development and welfare of the state's police department and its staff.

"The establishment of three group centres in the eastern, western, and central parts of the state to operate as gated communities with inbuilt self-sufficiency for police personnel and their families," Felix said.

Apart from increasing the financing ratio for two sanctioned IRBns, Felix requested the Centre's continuous support under the TCL action plan, as well as the inclusion of scope for police housing projects under the Centre's modernisation of police forces scheme, among other things.

Pramanik, Felix, MLA Hayeng Mangfi, DGP (in-charge) Chukhu Apa, IGP Apur Bitin, state's security advisor SC Mohanty, and other police officers had previously visited the 1st AAPBn ground in Chimpu, where state's STF personnel demonstrated unarmed combat and hostage rescue techniques, as well as weapons.