The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has urged the Centre to activate the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) that creates a centralised database of sensitive information collected by various agencies from several sources, and also facilitate exchange of information in a way that the States' intelligence system may also be benefited.
He also suggested that a nodal agency should be made responsible for preventing misuse of social media and a protocol regarding this should also be maintained.
Speaking at the 11th Inter-State Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi on Saturday, Chouhan also pleaded for provision of funds for the police modernization scheme under its building construction head so that construction of housing units for the police personnel goes on.
Stressing the need for amending the system for raising paramilitary force, Chouhan said that sometimes it becomes urgent to handle law and order in emergency situations. The existing system leads to delay in the process.
Describing internal security as top priority, Chouhan said that the police force has been strengthened and technologically equipped. He said that in the last four years, annually more than 31,000 new posts have been created and 50 new police stations and 108 police posts have been sanctioned.
Referring to the Dial 100 integrated police emergency response system, Chouhan said that now police services and assistance are reaching out to the people within 5 to 10 minutes in urban and within 30 to 45 minutes in rural areas.
The Chief Minister said that Aadhar numbers in delivery of public services will be used optimally and by 2017 all beneficiary-oriented schemes will be Aadhar-based. He informed that Aadhar number has been issued to all citizens above the age of 18.
Chouhan said that the Aadhar number is being used for social security pension, distribution of scholarships to schoolchildren and wages under MNREGA. Beneficiaries are directly receiving the amount in their respective bank accounts. Besides, the Aadhar number will also be used in the Board of Secondary Education and the Public Service Commission's examinations.
The Chief Minister stressed the need for making banking correspondent model more effective saying that the beneficiaries face problems due to limited number of rural branches of banks and inadequate banking correspondent services. He said that the Pension at Your Doorstep initiative has been launched on a pilot basis initially at Vidisha and Sagar. Pension distribution through mobile banking has been launched for Shahdol, Umaria, Anuppur districts. These initiatives are being implemented in the villages where pension beneficiaries have to cover a distance of five km.
The Chief Minister also suggested establishing a national education university to which all colleges of education can be affiliated. Referring to the initiatives for quality education in the the State, Chouhan said that in the last ten years, the dropout rates at primary, middle and high school levels have come down.
Chouhan said that the evaluation systems at the schools are being improved. Initially, 25,000 primary and secondary schools have been selected. He emphasized on declaring Class V and Class VIII as Board exams saying that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has been requested in this regard. He said that sports, yoga and moral education should be compulsorily included in the school syllabus. In Madhya Pradesh, yoga and moral education have already been included in the syllabus.
Chouhan pointed out that reimbursement of children's educational expenses apart from their fee should be taken care of under the Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. Describing children as valued national asset, he said that the State should be supported for nurturing especially talented children. It should be supported for setting up of State level institute for nurturing gifted and talented children, he added.