NAHARLAGUN, Oct 14: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday inaugurated the Donyi Polo Multipurpose Hall at the Galo Heritage Centre in Tarajuli, near here, describing it as a landmark of community participation and cultural resolve. Warning that Arunachal's tribal populations are small in the national context, the CM, in his address, said identity is at risk if language and tradition are lost. While the government can only support through policy, he said, communities themselves must preserve their heritage and pass it on.

The programme was organized by the Naharlagun Mopin Management and Promotion Committee, caretaker of the Heritage Centre, in coordination with the Galo Welfare Society and clan-based organizations.

The CM said the project was far more than a government-funded building. The Mopin ground at Naharlagun, in use since 1976, was handed over voluntarily by the Galo community to make way for the state's first medical college, the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS). The community then formed a committee, identified a new site and purchased about 11,217 square metres at Tarajuli through its own contributions. Clan organizations built the boundary walls and traditional gates, and more than 430 individuals donated funds.

The hall, sanctioned under the Centre's Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment after the Chief Minister's 2022 assurance, was completed in about a year, against the two to three years such projects usually take. Khandu credited community ownership and team effort, and said the Galo example would inspire other tribes across the state.

He said the hall, named for Donyi Polo, the faith of the Sun and the Moon, will serve as the permanent venue for Mopin and as a living centre where youth learn songs, dances and crafts and elders pass on their knowledge.

The CM announced that the drainage system required at the Heritage Centre premises will be approved within this year, and that a shed will be built at the Itanagar Mopin and Solung ground for use by both the Galo and Adi communities. The request for a Galo secretariat and heritage infrastructure will be followed up, he said.

Responding to a memorandum of demands submitted at the event, he said larger road projects would take time. The CM reiterated that the Centre's support for a two-lane road between Ruksin and Kimin is conditional on land being donated free of cost along the surveyed alignment, and said he would proceed once communities provide written consent.

On the Assam-Arunachal boundary, he said disputes over 123 villages have been largely resolved under the Prime Minister's leadership, and that 31 of 32 contested areas in Papum Pare district were settled in recent joint on-ground visits by regional committees. He said work on other long-pending issues, including the Chakma question, is advancing and that the people will be informed at the appropriate time.

Urging society to value all work equally, the Chief Minister said countries that have developed, place high dignity on labour, and encouraged Arunachal to build a similar work culture. He called for local youth to be trained in construction, electrical and plumbing trades, so that the state depends less on outside skilled workers. He cited a batch of 50 youths sent to the National Skill Centre in Hyderabad, who later executed a project in Pasighat for Rs. 10 lakh against a Rs. 18 lakh quotation from an outside team.

Stressing that government jobs cannot absorb everyone, he encouraged entrepreneurship, including through the MSME sector and the Arunachal Pradesh Entrepreneurship Development Program, whose capacity has been doubled with 100 entrepreneurs in its latest cohort.

Under the Arunachal Academic Excellence initiative, the state bears the scholarship cost for students admitted to universities ranked within the QS top 150.

Referring to artificial intelligence and machine learning, he urged people to use technology as a servant rather than become subservient to it, and to prepare for its impact on jobs without losing age-old culture.

Highlighting the state's decade of governance, Khandu noted that more than 1.5 lakh women are organized in over 16,000 self-help groups and that nearly 46 per cent of startups are women-led.

"Over Rs. 3,000 crore has been invested under Mission Shikshit Arunachal Phase I, with another Rs. 1,500 crore approved for Phase II, and government school enrolment has risen by over 13 per cent. The Vibrant Villages Programme covers 455 border villages in Phase I and 122 more in Phase II," the CM said.

He said these efforts follow the principle of Vikas, Sewa and Virasat, citing support for indigenous Gurukul schools, 20 GI-tagged Arunachal products and steps to strengthen legal protection of indigenous faiths, as well as high-powered committees on APST safeguards, the ILP framework and illegal infiltration, to be addressed through dialogue and consensus.

Inviting every community to reflect on the road to 2047 as Arunachal Pradesh completes forty years of Statehood on 20 February, 2027, the CM urged young people to remain proud of their roots while staying confident in a fast-changing world. (CMO's PR cell)