In his Government’s first Union Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ensured that the much talked about Gujarat Model finds its way into several new schemes which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled on Thursday.
During his extensive election campaign across the country, Modi repeatedly talked about 24X7 electricity supply in Gujarat through effective implementation of the Jyotirgram Yojana. Jaitley announced Rs 500 crore for a similar scheme — ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana’ intended to provide uninterrupted power supply to all homes in the country.
Another scheme is the ‘Syama Prasad Mookerjee Rurban Mission’ (SPMR). The term ‘Rurban’ (Rural + Urban) was coined by Modi himself around a decade ago when he was Gujarat Chief Minister. His intension was to have urban infrastructure in Gujarat villages and the idea of ‘Rurban’ arose from that. SPMR also talks about providing civic infrastructure services to rural areas. In fact, Jaitley went a step further and tried to address the issue of skill development in rural areas through this scheme.
In 2006, Save the Girl Child (Beti Bachao) campaign was at its peak in Gujarat. The State Government initiated the campaign following alarming data that revealed the skewed sex ratio in some parts of Gujarat, especially in Mehsana in North Gujarat — the district Modi himself belongs to. Due to the major awareness campaign launched by the Government, the sex ratio improved in the State.
Now, the same campaign is being replicated nationally with some improvisations and Rs 100 crore has been allotted for the purpose by the Finance Minister.
Soil Health Card (SHC) was also introduced by the Modi Government way back in 2003. According to agriculture scientists, one of the reasons for increase in agriculture production in Gujarat is SHC as the farmers are getting inputs about what kind of crops are suitable for their farms. Now, the benefit of SHC will be available to peasants across the country.
Besides these schemes, riverfront projects, gas grid, cleanliness related schemes, Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana for tribals and affordable housing schemes are also inspired from the success story of Gujarat through similar kinds of schemes and projects.