BOMDILA: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Thursday joined the 2 Arunachal Scouts in celebrating the battalion’s 10 years of service to the State and the nation, at Bomdila in West Kameng district.
The 2 Arunachal Scouts was raised on June 1, 2013, at the Umroi cantonment in Meghalaya under Col Neelesh Anand Pagulwar.
The infantry battalion was inducted to the 4 corps zone on March 8, 2014, with its headquarters in Bomdila.
Congratulating the battalion on completion of a decade of service to the nation, Khandu hailed it as “flag bearers of Arunachal Pradesh in the Indian Army.”
“Arunachal Scouts is very close to our hearts as the battalion’s name itself raises the feeling of oneness. This is our battalion. This is Arunachal’s battalion,” he said.
The CM remembered his late father Dorjee Khandu, who as the then Chief Minister of the state had passionately pursued the Central Government to raise a unit in the Indian Army specifically for Arunachal Pradesh, “in the line of the Ladakh Scouts and the Kumaon Scouts.”
“When the 1 Arunachal Scouts battalion was raised in 2010, my father had proudly attended the raising ceremony in Shillong.
“His dream for facilitating the youths of the Northeast, particularly Arunachal Pradesh, to join the Indian Army in large numbers was fulfilled,” he said.
The CM added, “As a legislator of a constituency (Jang-Mukto) that sits in the Tawang sector along the Indo-Tibet border, I have always had respect and confidence on the Indian Army.
“At least once a year, I make it a point to visit the border outposts of my constituency, especially the Mago-Chuna sector.
“Besides meeting the people there, I always take time out to spend some quality time with the jawans posted along the border,” he said.
He said that the presence of youths of Arunachal and other north-eastern states donning the Arunachal Scouts insignia makes him ‘swell with pride’.
Khandu lauded the Army units posted in Arunachal ‘for their bonding with the civilian population.’
He and said, “the people of Arunachal Pradesh, who are born patriots, have immense respect for the Indian Army and thus bond with them well in every sphere.”
“Here, no civilian programme – be it a music festival, indigenous festival, health camp, or any sporting event – is complete without participation of the Army. Likewise, no programme of the Army is complete without participation of the civilians,” he said.
Informing about the Centre’s Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) to transform all villages along the border, the Khandu sought cooperation of the Indian Army and the central armed paramilitary forces (CAPF) ‘for its successful implementation’.
Among others, MLAs Phurpa Tsering, Kumsi Sidisow, Dorjee Wangdi Kharma and Dongru Siongju, besides 5 Mountain Division GOC Maj Gen Ajay Kumar Singh, 311 Brigade Commander Brig Nikhil Deshpande, 311 Brigade Deputy Commander Col Anil Kumar, 2nd Arunachal Scouts Commander Col Bhaskar Pandey, 77 Brigade Deputy Commander Col RKN Maney, and the DCs of West Kameng and Tawang districts attended the celebration.