Every ministry equally important: Rijiju

Itanagar, Jun 5 (PTI) Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said every ministry was equally important to him, and he would take care of whatever responsibility was assigned to him dedicatedly.

Asked by reporters here about the recent reshuffle of the Union Cabinet in which he was removed from the Law and Justice Ministry and assigned the Earth Sciences Ministry, Rijiju said he was ready to serve the Narendra Modi government in any capacity.

“For me, to become an MP is important. As every organ is important for the body, every department is important for the government. Earth sciences is a very big subject,” he said on the sidelines of the ‘Maha Jan Sampark Abhiyan’, which was launched on May 31 to highlight the achievements of the BJP-led government at the Centre over nine years.

Earlier in the day, he attended the signing of an agreement between the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Arunachal Pradesh’s Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies.

At the event, he announced that three Doppler radar stations would be set up in the state soon.

“This will help in the enhancement of surface weather observations in the state. Also, weather forecasts with impact-based advisories will also be issued,” Rijiju said.

According to the agreement, both organisations would carry out joint research and development in the field of meteorology and its allied subjects, knowledge transfers and information sharing in areas of weather, extreme event monitoring and forecasting.

“Our target is that within a year we are going to install about 100 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and Automatic Raingauge Stations (ARS), so that every mountain, river, village and town could record weather forecast which will help the farmers manifold,” the minister said, maintaining that there would be no dearth of funds.

Rijiju claimed that it was the policy of the Congress to not develop border areas on the pretext that if the infrastructure is created, China could come and transgress into India’s territory.

“However, in 2014, when I became the Minister of State for Home, this policy was reversed by the NDA government. I conceived two projects — the Frontier Highway and the East-West Industrial Corridor. The prime minister without taking into account the economic consideration but considering the strategic value approved the two projects,” he said.
He said that to develop infrastructure in the border areas, the Centre recently approved a package of Rs 44,000 crore.

“Once completed, it would help safeguard the country’s borders with China and Myanmar, and control migration from border areas, besides improving tourism infrastructure,” he said.