The Union Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh has said that India is moving on the path of development at a fast pace and is poised to become a 5 Trillion economy. He said that the country is now aiming to register its name in top three economies of the world by the year 2024-25. The minister was speaking at the Bharat- Bharti programme organised on the occasion of state foundation day at Parade Ground here on Saturday. Congratulating the people of Uttarakhand for completion of 19 years of creation of a separate state, the Union minister expressed confidence that Uttarakhand would progress at a much faster pace than in last 19 years. He said that in Uttarakhand which houses world famous Char Dham, every village is a Sainnya Dham ( military shrine) and the state has also become a Vidhya Dham ( education shrine) in recent times as students from every part of the country are studying here. Appreciating the programme in which the students of different colleges presented unity in diversity of the country in form of a cultural programme, Rajnath Singh said that the youth are the most effective agents of positive change. He exhorted the younger generation to follow, Swami Vivekanand who was the global youth icon of the country.
The defence minister asked the youngsters to set their target and work hard to achieve them. He said that India has rich and glorious history and it is the only country in the world where cultural identify is firmly entrenched in nationhood. Rajnath Singh said that the Indian culture is full of generosity, tolerance, valour and homogeneity.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that Uttarakhand had made rapid progress in last 19 years. He said that one of the best examples of development of the state is the fact that the per capita income of the state has increased from mere Rs 20000 in the year 2000 to Rs 1.98 lakhs this year. He said that the state in last few years has become an education hub as students from all states of the country are admitted in the educational institutes of the country.
The Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the mayor of Dehradun Sunil Uniyal Gama, cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal, the BJP president Ajay Bhatt, Madhu Chauhan, state minister Dhan Singh Rawat and large number of officials were present on the occasion.
The students of different universities and colleges and artists enthralled the audience with their performance in a cultural programme organised on the occasion.
CM makes many announcements on foundation day
On the occasion of the state foundation day the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat made many announcements. He said that the process of land settlement would be initiated in the state for the first time after year1961. Rawat said that survey for the process would start soon and initially the land settlement would be done in the districts of Pauri and Almora. Incidentally these districts are worst affected by large scale migration.
The CM also announced that all the students of the Government primary school would be given fortified skimmed milk once a week. Similarly the arrangements for providing milk on four days of a week and eggs and banana on remaining two days to the students under Mid Day Meal (MDM) have been made. For development of border areas, the State Government has started Chief Minister’s Border Area Development Plan (BADP).
The CM also made announcements to make an increase of `200 in different pensions of social welfare department ( old age, widow, disability). He also said that the daily allowance of the PRD and UPNL workers would be made ` 500.