The Policy Planning Group (PPG), which comprises 21 members with Chief Minister Harish Rawat in the chair, claimed to have readied a roadmap to facilitate overall development of the Uttarkhand. A meeting was held at Bijapur guest house on Friday.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister said that his Government would route all policies through the PPG and incorporate their recommendation as well. For this, the Chief Minister has constituted six sub-groups. The first one will look after agriculture, horticulture, rural development and primary sector. The second will monitor infrastructure, industry, urbanization, tourism and tertiary sector. The third will see social sector while the fourth will see science & technology. The fifth will engage itself in human resource development and skill development while the sixth will be concerned with execution only.
Rawat said that there is need to qualitatively upgrade agriculture, animal husbandry and education sectors. "Although in terms of per capita income we are in the front row the problem of regional imbalance remains worrisome. We will have to hone our human resources in tune with what the market demands. This aside, we have to mould our technical education to attune it to the current scenario. We have failed to carve out a niche of our own in the realm of handicrafts. To put things on the right tracks, the PPG should meet at regular intervals. Its recommendations would be implemented on a priority level.
PPG convenor Indu Kumar Pande made a presentation on the quantum of development Uttarakhand has witnessed since its inception. "Things are not awfully bleak for us; however, regional imbalance is proving to be a sticky issue. Hills and remote areas are yet to taste much of progress. So it is an imperative to evolve a practical approach while formulating plans. Moreover, we have failed to create job opportunities in consonance with the pace of economic development. We will have to stress adequately on rural tourism while blending it with livelihood options. Since the State came up the Rs 50,000 crore has been spent in the plans and now it is time to take stock of things on how much the State has benefitted out of it. To ensure optimal efficiency of expenditure, we will have to bring forth flaw-proof monitoring and evaluation systems," he said.
Dr RS Tolia said, "Although the Union Government has abolished the concept of planning we should conduct mid-term evaluations as regards the 12th Five Year Plan. We will have to give emphasis on resource generation through the private sectors. Even we will have to think about how to check exit of industries. They are wrapping up their units, compounding things for us. We will have to redraft our policy concerning each department as per the need. The forest comes under concurrent list both the Centre and the states have equal right on it."
Noted environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt said we will have to study our rivers deeply to grasp how the changing environment is impacting them. Dr Harsh Singhal said the State can hardly ignore hydro power projects despite the histrionics being raised on the apprehended damage to environment. Power sector should be the first priority of the State. UKD leader Kashi Singh Airy said we will have make policy right from the micro level so that we could harness our resources like water, forest and bio-diversity.
Ex-MlA Qazi Nizamuddin said the farmers remaining tethered to agriculture runs counter to the spirit of progress. Compensation amount for the land losers should be adequate to help them shed their psychological inhibition. We should give emphasis on ITI, polytechnique and engineering colleges so that they would incorporate the market demands in their curriculum.
Ex-Advocate General Mehaban Singh Negi said that we will have to keep villages in the focus while firming up development plans. Horticulture expert DP Uniyal said we will have to stress on our Van Panchayat to increase its productivity. Dr BP Maithani said that to improve our agriculture, we will have to promote cluster based agriculture. Dr BS Bist said we will have to ensure availability of quality material and develop smart villages under which all kinds of information related to agriculture, weather, seed and land are provided to the farmers and the villagers over their mobiles.
Ex Vice -Chancellor VK Joshi said that there is need to make bottom-up planning and conduct evaluation through third party. We will have to bring transparency in power sector policy and inculcate scientific approach among the youth. For this, we will have to establish quality library in each district of the State.
Ex-MP Pradeep Tamta said that we will have to promote our handicraft so that more and more people would adopt this as livelihood avenues. By doing this we can create job opportunity for locals. VP Dimri said that to mitigate disaster we will have to develop our early warning system and focus on integrated approach as well.
Ex-MP lt Gen TPS Rawat said that we should promote tourism friendly approach and give emphasis on remote areas. Ex-IAS Vibhapuri Das said that we will have to upgrade our education system and will have to incorporate new approach so that youth would be self-sufficient to earn livelihood. We should create inter-connected data bank and make it available on our portal.
Ex-Chief Secretary Madhukar Gupta said that there is need to focus on skill development, planned urbanization and to make available the market of our local agriculture produce. Other dignitaries including the State Cabinet Minister Indira Hridayesh, Chief Secretary N Ravishankar, Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, S Raju and PPG members, Principal Secretary Planning S Ramaswami and Principal Secretary to CM Omprakash were present.
