Arunachal Assembly polls: PPA’s Oken Tayeng vows to work for controlling Siang river erosion

Less than 2 weeks to go for the Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections, campaigning has picked pace with every party actively engaged in efforts to woo the last voter.

The scenario is no different in the Mebo Assembly constituency in the East Siang district where it will be an exciting fight between 6-time MLA and former Congress veteran Lombo Tayeng and Oken Tayeng of the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA).

Worth mentioning, Lombo Tayeng had jumped ship to the BJP from Congress last month, while Oken Tayeng who was a BJP ticket aspirant from the Mebo constituency, was denied a ticket. Thereafter, Oken Tayeng joined the PPA and became the party’s official candidate from Mebo.

Among the many issues including improvement of road infrastructure, unemployment, as well as overall development of Mebo, PPA’s Okey Tayeng is deeply concerned over the issue of erosion caused by the Siang river.

Speaking to Northeast Live, during his campaign trail Okey Tayeng said that if elected as an MLA his first priority will be to work for controlling the erosion by the Siang river.

He said, “In our manifesto one of the first thing is control of Siang erosion. In the last flood we lost almost 1000 hectares of land which is a big big area, so if we have another incident like that, then it will be a big disaster. We would not have most of the beautiful villages that we have now. So it is one of my top priorites to check the erosion caused by Siang.”

Regarding road connectivity, Oken Tayeng said, “The other one is the connectivity through Mebo-Dhola Road. We should be able to travel to the Dibrugarh airport from Mebo in less than 2 hours.”

Vehemently opposing the prevalence of money culture during elections, Oken Tayeng said, “Actually it is a very old disease, it is difficult to get rid of this problem at one go, but I think this time people are starting to understand because they have been doing the same trend, cash for vote. The kind of money that you receive during election is very very small, it does not serve any purpose.”

Oken Tayeng is campaigning with the slogan of Mebo for a Change.

During his campaign trail today, Oken Tayeng was accompanied by PPA’s state vice president, T. Jongkey, former Mebo MLA, Ralom Borang, PPA Mebo Block President, Upok Ratan along with many retired officers and well-wishers.