Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday said that Niti Ayog has strengthened the concept of co-operative federalism between all the states.
Apart from this, the states are getting increased financial outlays for several developmental projects.
The Chief Minister expressed these views at a meeting with Niti Ayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar at the Mantralaya here.
Singh while giving the details of geographical landscape of the state called upon the Ayog officials to allocate special budget to the State.
The State can be categorized into three separate entities - tribal dominated Surguja, Jashpur as hilly region, second into tribal majority Bastar division and plain region in between these two. The State Government had been making earnest efforts to develop the region with close co-operation of the Central Government, he said.
Dr Kumar while reviewing the several projects hailed the implementation of various social welfare schemes.
He said that National Immunization programme , educational facilities for school children in left-Wing Extremism affected districts, Rail Corridor Project to develop rapid network of train lines and supplying electricity to irrigation pumps under the ‘Sour Sujla Yojana’.
He said that State authorities had been allocating free domestic gas connections to about 36 lakh poor families under the Prime Minister Ujjwala project.
The Chhattisgarh government is moving ahead with a clear vision, strategy and action plan to achieve the goals set by Niti Aayog, Chief Minister Raman Singh said in April this year. The Chief Minister was speaking at the Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had presided over the meeting, attended by union ministers and chief ministers of various states.
He had stated that over 20,000 youths of Naxal affected regions of the State were given training in skill development. Cleanliness drive under Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan has increased up to 84 per cent in Chhattisgarh will become an open defecation free state by October 2, 2018, the Chief Minister said.
Singh said that Chhattisgarh with the help of its resources is working on a rapid action plan to increase mobile and internet connectivity in remote tribal areas.
The Chief Minister said the State is getting good results from the innovations started under the inspiration and guidance from the Prime Minister.
He said that Chhattisgarh is the first State to make legislation and give right to skill development for youths.
Taking the skill enhancement programme to a different level the government started livelihood colleges in every district. Seeing the necessity of skill development, the State government is spending over Rs 400 crore from its budget annually, Singh said.
He suggested that a quality arrangement should be made by sector skill council to provide training of evaluators and trainers.
For effective implementation of Swachh bharat, the State government has worked on the strategy of providing encouragement amount to the beneficiaries only after three months of toilet construction, Singh said.
Drawing attention towards the unused toilets, the chief minister urged that a proposal to make unused toilet usable should be sanctioned, the Chief Minister said.
He said that under the vision document 2030, the State government is working on achieving five targets. The State is focusing on removal of poverty, strengthening the panchayats, providing nutrition, health facilities, quality education, safe drinking water and strengthening infrastructure, the Chief Minister said.
SIngh suggested that e-portal by GSTN should be made easy and convenient for businessmen and said that module of the form filled by businessmen should be provided to them in advance so that they get used to the new system, Singh said.
Notably, Central Government’s Niti Aayog has formed ‘Ek Bharat Shrehtha Bharat’ scheme and MoU format for the scheme, under which Chhattisgarh has been paired with Gujarat.
Under the scheme, various programmes will be organized in year 2017 from January to December under the joint aegis of both the states.
In a meeting, representatives of departments concerned were informed about the events to be organized by them and were accordingly allotted responsibilities.
Niti Ayog and Union Human Resource Ministry has issued guidelines regarding various activities and works to be included under “Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat” scheme.
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Thursday reviewed progress of key infrastructure sectors including PMGSY, housing, coal and power in New Delhi. The review meeting, which lasted for about two and a half hours, was attended by top officials from PMO, NITI Aayog and infrastructure Ministries of the Government of India.
In course of the presentation made by CEO NITI Aayog, it was noted that remarkable progress has been made in several areas. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 81 per cent of the targeted habitations numbering about 1.45 lakh have so far been connected. Officials said progress is being made towards connecting all the remaining unconnected habitations within a defined timeframe. The Prime Minister observed that resources available for this work should be used optimally throughout the year.
He also hoped that the advancement of the Union Budget date would lead to further improvement in performance. He called for detailed analysis of the complaints, so that timely remedial measures are initiated wherever required.
Reviewing progress towards the roadmap to deliver one crore houses in the rural areas by 2019, the Prime Minister said that the positive impact of housing on the lives of the beneficiaries should be suitably examined, and the focus should be on improving their quality of life.
Reviewing the coal sector, the Prime Minister called for renewed efforts towards underground mining and coal gasification, through infusion of latest technology inputs.
The Prime Minister was also informed about progressing towards the targets for rural electrification and household electrification.
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government has informed that new roads measuring 1320 kms have been completed in left Wing Extremism (lWE) infested districts of the State under Centre’s RRP-I scheme.
The roads were completed between 2011 to 2017, it was informed in a review meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand at the Mantralaya in Naya Raipur recently.
The Chief Secretary told officials to seek help of police forces in case they encounter any problems during road development in insurgency infested areas.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government will soon take up the task of constructing a total of 98 roads in seven districts of the State under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
The districts where the roads would be constructed are- Sukma, Rajnandgaon, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kondagaon, Janjjgir-Champa and Kanker, officials informed.
Notably, a total of 6372 rural roads measuring 26,815 kms had been prepared in Chhattisgarh so far involving an expenditure of Rs 7880 crore under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during the current financial year so far.
This was informed by officials in the State-level Permanent Committee meeting of Chhattisgarh Rural Roads Development Authority chaired by Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand at the Mantrlaya in March this year.
A total of 6697 rural roads had been approved by the Central Government measuring 29,562 kms under PMGSY.
A total of 105 new roads would be constructed in various districts of Chhattisgarh under batch-II of the project work under PPMGSY, officials informed.
It may be recalled that the worst insurgency infested districts of Chhattisgarh would be able to further provide a boost to rural road connectivity work with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approving a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely “Road Connectivity Project for left Wing Extremism (lWE) Affected Areas”.
The project is aimed at improving the rural road connectivity in the worst lWE affected districts from security angle, officials informed.
The project will be implemented as a vertical under PMGSY to provide connectivity with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures in 44 worst affected lWE districts and adjoining districts in the country, critical from security and communication point of view. The roads will be operable throughout the year irrespective of all weather conditions.
Under the project, construction/upgradation of 5,411.81 km road and 126 bridges/Cross Drainage works will be taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.11,724.53 crore in the above district.
The fund sharing pattern of lWE road project will be same as that of PMGSY i.e. in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and States for all States except for eight North Eastern and three Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand) for which it is 90:10.
The Union Ministry of Finance will have to allocate to Union Ministry of Rural Development Rs.7,034.72 crore for this project during the period of implementation 2016-17 to 2019-20.
Chhattisgarh government has set 2018 deadline to complete construction of an additional 3,000 kms of road network with an investment of USD 2.34 billion.