A clean-up drive in a small Northeastern capital is drawing attention from the top. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu publicly lauded the Itanagar Municipal Corporation on Thursday, October 22, 2026, praising its eviction drives and sanitation efforts — and then raised the stakes by signalling that larger urban upgrades for Itanagar and Naharlagun are already on the drawing board.

Mayor Likha Nari's ground-level drive earns state-level backing

At the centre of the CM's praise is Mayor Smt. Likha Nari, under whose leadership the corporation has intensified eviction campaigns and a visible push for cleaner streetscapes in the state capital. Khandu described these as 'steps in the right direction', a pointed endorsement that carries weight in a small capital where the Chief Minister's public approval directly shapes administrative momentum. The corporation's corporators also received a mention — a deliberate signal that the work is being watched.

The IMC oversees sanitation, urban planning, and civic services across Itanagar. Encroachment removal and cleanliness drives in the capital region are not new, but a sitting Chief Minister amplifying them on social media adds political oxygen to routine municipal work.

Itanagar–Naharlagun: two towns, one urban vision

What lifted the post beyond routine praise was Khandu's forward declaration: 'We have big plans for Itanagar and Naharlagun — better infrastructure, cleaner streets and better civic services.' Naharlagun, located in Papum Pare district and administratively twinned with Itanagar, forms the functional second half of the capital urban cluster. Any serious infrastructure push for one city almost always implicates the other.

The specifics — timelines, funding, project names — remain to be announced. What Khandu's post does is set a public expectation that the current momentum is a prelude, not the endgame. That framing matters: it turns a municipal cleanliness drive into a chapter in a larger urban story.

Northeast urban governance: pattern behind the push

Arunachal Pradesh's capital region has long grappled with the pressures of rapid, unplanned growth — encroachment on public land, uneven road quality, and sanitation gaps that the state government has periodically targeted. CM Khandu's social media engagement with local civic actions is itself part of a pattern: the Chief Minister regularly uses his platform to spotlight administrative delivery in Itanagar, blurring the line between governance and communication in a state where both matter enormously for public trust.

The next signal to watch is concrete: state budget allocations or project announcements for civic infrastructure in the twin-city corridor. Today's public backing gives those future announcements a clear political narrative thread to hang on.

Itanagar's streets may be getting cleaner — but if the plans the Chief Minister is hinting at take shape, the capital could look markedly different in the years ahead.