April 27, 2024
April 27, 2024
Joken Ete
ITANAGAR, Mar 27: With saffron waves flowing across the country including Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP in the state is confident of coming back to power with a thumping majority.
Arunachal unit BJP president Biyuram Wahge, who is trying his electoral luck for the third time from Pakke-Kessang constituency, has exuded confidence of his win, banking on the party’s development agenda.
Divulging details of his election agenda, the two-time MLA, said that his main issues this time in the assembly election would be development, connectivity and welfare measures.
“We lost three years due to Covid-19 and as I was busy with party matters, I could not do much for the people,” he admitted frankly.
Under the BJP rule, the state has seen unprecedented development in all sectors be it roads, mobile connectivity, air connectivity, etc.
Waghe won the seat for the first time in the by-election held in 2017.
By-poll to the constituency was necessitated following the rejection of Congress politician and former deputy chief minister Kameng Dolo's plea by the Supreme court against a judgement of the Gauhati High Court declaring the election of Dolo in the 2014 Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election void.
Dolo also contested the by-poll from the same constituency but lost against Wahge.
Waghe returned to the assembly from the seat in 2019 as a BJP nominee by defeating Congress candidate Atum Welly by a margin of 2,222 votes.
He donated his first salary as a member of the Arunachal Pradesh Legislative assembly to the party's state unit fund, thereby becoming the first legislator in the history of the state to do so.
Witnessing the quantum of development in the constituency, supporters from various parties including Congress have joined the saffron brigade reposing faith in the party’s leadership.
I decided to join the BJP after seeing the development of my constituency, said Ravi Techi from Ngoleko village, who runs a hotel in Rilloh.
Techi, who was a die-hard Congressman, said his relatives also decided to join BJP and support Wahge as MLA as he has brought development like roads, mobile, health and hygiene, sanitation, water supply, etc., in the villages.
Clarifying the opposition’s claim of misappropriation of funds for the 62-km Pakke-Seijosa-Itakhola road, funded by the North Eastern Council (NEC), Waghe said those who are claiming it are using the road themselves.
The road has cut down the travel time from Seijosa to Lemmi by more than four hours, he said.
Wahge said people had to take the Lemmi-Sagalee-Itanagar route to reach Seijosa in the district, travelling for around six hours. Now, people can travel from Lemmi to Seijosa in just around one and half hours.
Seijosa residents can now directly travel to Lemmi for official and other works and can go back after work, he said.
My opponents have no issue, therefore, they are raking up the issue, Wahge added.
Niti Darlong gram panchayat chairperson Rankumoni Tallang echoed the MLA, saying opposition has no issue for the elections, so they are unnecessarily highlighting the issue.
She said the road, which is incomplete, has been a blessing for the public of Seijosa, as the travel time to the district HQs has been reduced.
Wahge, however, admitted that due to rough terrain, harsh weather conditions and being a forested area, there are sharp curves, steep slopes all along the stretch.
The work on the road was approved by the NEC in 2013-14 at an estimated cost of Rs 166.16 crore and sanctioned in 2015-16. The project was implemented by the Public Works Department and the work was allotted to PRL-Gepung (JV) in April 2017. However, due to litigation, the actual work started in October 2018.
Earlier, our constituency was neglected, as there was no power, no road, said Ngoleko gram panchayat member Rajo Techi.
Rajo, who was a Congressman, said after Waghe came to power everything has changed.
He praised the MLA for infrastructure development in Lemmi, saying the MLA has ensured roads, power supply, mobile connectivity to every village in the district.
A mini-secretariat is also coming up at Lemmi and is on the verge of completion, he said.
The MLA has ensured that every household in Taja Happa/Pasa Valley circle is covered under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), power supply, mobile network connectivity.
He said the MLA himself took the onus to rebuild a residential school at Pasa, which was washed away by landslide due to earth-cutting for highways in 2017.
I am committed and focused to work for the welfare of my people and development of my constituency and my district, Wahge said.
My own district-Pakke Kessang has been one of the fastest developing districts in terms of development, the Pakke Kessang MLA said.
In my next term, I will work for infrastructure development and also for dereservation of Reserved Forests, he added.
