ITANAGAR, May 6 � Dorjee Khandu�s successor, Jarbom Gamlin has said he will carry forward the �vision� of the late Chief Minister towards making the frontier State of Arunachal Pradesh as one of the front-ranking States in the country. (Briefly reported earlier).
�I will try my level best to keep alive the dreams of late Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu,� said the 50-year-old Gamlin soon after being sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of the State, replacing Dorjee Khandu, who died in a chopper crash on April 30.
He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Gen J J Singh in a hurriedly-called brief swearing-in ceremony at the Darbar Hall of Raj Bhawan here late last night. Union Ministers V Narayanasamy, B K Handique, Salman Khursheed, Vincent Pala and Mukul Wasnik, Assam Forest Minister Rokibul Hussain, CWC member Col (Dr) Dhaniram Shandil, AICC secretary in-charge of Arunachal, Sanjay Bapna were also present on the occasion.
The task before me is to carry forward the standard of development set by late Khandu and to transform his dreams into reality,� said Gamlin, who represents Liromoba constituency in the 60-member House.
Divulging his priority areas, Lok Sabha MP-turned-Chief Minister Gamlin said, �Since ours is a land-locked and hilly State, I will first concentrate on improving the road communication so that all unconnected remote villages could get a good connectivity towards their economic development. My second and third precedence will be on health and education sectors.
�With an onerous task ahead, I hope I will do my best to graduate the State towards the path to development with the help and cooperation from my colleagues and the people of the State,� he said.
�Another area of my priority will be to expedite the hydropower projects against which memorandum of understandings (MoUs) were inked with various Central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) and other private power developers during the tenure of Khandu, and to develop the potential tourism sector,� summed up the two-time MLA from Liromoba in West Siang district.
Born on April 16, 1961, he is the second of eight offsprings of Sokjar and Gamder Gamlin of Aalo in West Siang district. A product of Sainik School, Goalpara in Assam, Gamlin graduated with honours in History from St Stephen College and LLB from Campus Law College � both under Delhi University. Besides practicing law for two years, he was the president of Arunachal Bar Association during 1992-2001 and All Arunachal Pradesh Students� Union (AAPSU) from 1981 to 1983.
The father of three kids was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal West constituency (1999-2004) defeating his opponent Omak Apang, a former Union Minister. He was first elected as MLA from Liromoba seat in 2004 and given the Home and Parliamentary Affairs portfolio in the Apang Ministry. But he was dropped during the fag end of Apang�s term. He was re-elected in the 2009 Assembly polls from the same seat and given the portfolio of Power in Khandu Ministry.
