Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday, 7 July 2026, met with the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) conducting flood damage assessment in the state, and pressed the team to include the devastation suffered by remote, hard-to-reach villages that risk being overlooked in official tallies.

Context

Posting on X, CM Khandu stated that 'several remote areas in Arunachal have suffered extensive devastation, but their stories remain largely unheard because of difficult terrain and remoteness.' He confirmed that during his meeting with the IMCT, led by Joint Secretary Ms. Nishtha Tiwari, he 'ensured these unheard voices were brought to the forefront of our flood assessment.' The Chief Minister added: 'No part of Arunachal will be forgotten.'

The post was accompanied by four photographs, indicating the meeting was a formal, documented engagement between state leadership and the central government's assessment body.

Policy Backdrop

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team is a mechanism established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which empowers the Centre to dispatch multi-ministry teams to disaster-affected states. These teams evaluate the scale of calamity damage and submit recommendations that determine the quantum of financial assistance released from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern frontier state sharing international borders, is characterised by steep gorges, high-altitude valleys, and river systems prone to flash floods and landslides during the monsoon season. Its remote border districts have historically faced under-reporting of damage because assessment teams struggle to reach cut-off villages within the window of active relief operations.

Stakeholders and Impact

The communities most directly affected are tribal and frontier villages in districts where road connectivity is severed by landslides or flooding, leaving residents without access to emergency supplies or damage-reporting mechanisms. Under-reporting at the ground level can translate into lower damage estimates in the IMCT report, which in turn reduces the central financial assistance a state receives.

By personally intervening in the IMCT meeting, CM Khandu sought to correct this structural gap, ensuring that villages without the logistical means to document their own losses are nonetheless counted in the state's formal memorandum to the Centre. This approach reflects a broader federal principle that equitable relief distribution must account for access constraints, not merely reported damage figures.

Central teams regularly visit northeastern states each monsoon cycle to quantify losses, and successive governments at both the state and national level have emphasised inclusive coverage for tribal and frontier areas in relief distribution frameworks.

What's Next

The IMCT, after completing its field visits and reviewing the state's damage memorandum, will submit its assessment report to the Centre. The report forms the basis for any special financial package to Arunachal Pradesh from the NDRF. The critical test of Tuesday's intervention will be whether the final IMCT report reflects damage data from the remotest affected villages, and how quickly subsequent state-level disbursements reach those communities. CM Khandu's public commitment that 'every affected village, however remote, receives equal attention and support' sets a benchmark against which the relief rollout will be measured.