A draft roadmap has been prepared in-house in NITI Aayog for development of North-Eastern States and similarly positioned Eastern States i.e. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, odisha and west Bengal, a NITI Aayog report titled ' Transformation of Aspirational Districts' 2018 has informed.
The draft Road-map has been circulated to all concerned central Ministries/Departments and States for comments'
To finalize the draft road map assistance of World Bank shall be taken and all North Eastern States, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal have been requested to provide their consent before finalization of Terms of Reference (ToR), it had stated.
Agriculture Vertical has been actively engaged in Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) constituted by Ministry of to assess the damage caused due to drought, hailstorms, cold waves, etc to crops and livestock, etc. During 2016-17, IMCTs visited Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh States to assess the damage due to severe drought in Kharif, 2016. Kerala has suffered damages concurrently in Kharif, 2016 and Rabi, 2016-17. The drought was declared in 7 Districts of Madhya Pradesh; 19 Districts of Chhattisgarh and 14 Districts of Kerala.
The total reported area damaged >33% in these states due to drought was 0.542 lakh ha in Kerala, 6.05 lakh ha in Chhattisgarh and 18.64 lakh ha in Madhya Pradesh. The IMCTs recommended financial supports from the NDRF to the tune of Rs. 112.05 crore for Kerala; Rs. 395.91 crore for Chhattisgarh.
The drought was declared in 7 Districts of Madhya Pradesh; 19 Districts of Chhattisgarh and 14 Districts of Kerala. The total reported area damaged >33% in these states due to drought was 0.542 lakh ha in Kerala, 6.05 lakh ha in Chhattisgarh and 18.64 lakh ha in Madhya Pradesh. The IMCTs recommended financial supports from the NDRF to the tune of Rs. 112.05 crore for Kerala; Rs. 395.91 crore for Chhattisgarh. The recommendations of IMCT for MP is yet to be frozen.
With change in quantum of tied and untied funds to the State from Centre, and as an extension to similar analysis performed in 2016-17, change in central transfers to each state was assessed. It was found that the increase in total transfers to states in 2016-17 over 2015-16 was 17% against increase of 21.2% in 2015-16 over 2014-15. largest percentage change is witnessed by Sikkim (32%), Gujarat (29%), Chhattisgarh (26%) and Jharkhand (24%) in 2016-17 over previous year.
There are 11 districts of Chhattisgarh included in list of 115 Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog in the country, officials informed.
They are- Korba , Bastar, Mahasamund Bijapur, Dantewada,Chhattisgarh, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon and Sukma .
A total of 115 districts of the country which includes 35 districts affected by left Wing Extremism have been indentified for rapid transformation.
The Central Government has appointed an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary/ Additional Secretary as Prabhari Officer who would act as bridge between District, State and Central Govt. They are to guide district administration in making district action plan and to implement the same so that the concerned district may first try to catch up with the best district in the concerned State and then aspire to become among the India’s best districts. Four districts of Maharashtra have been identified in the list. They are Nandurbar, Washim, Gadchiroli, and Osmanabad. Of these, Gadchiroli has been included due to district being affected by left Wing Extremism.
This programme is implemented in partnership with State Governments. The concerned State Govt. including Maharashtra have joined this programme, and are working in close coordination with NITI Aayog and Central Government.
Given these institutional mechanism, there is no requirement of formally entering into a MoU as States are already working in close partnership with the Central Government.
NITI Aayog has given ‘in principle’ approval to various proposals related to roads, telecommunication, education, Ujjwala yojana and expansion of bank branches for overall development of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has asked various departments of the Centre to ensure speedy implementation of these suggestions and said that the Aayog will review the implementation process on a regular basis.
At a meeting held to implement Bastar Development Plan jeld in New Delhi at the NITI Aayog recently, senior officials led by Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Ajay Singh had discussed these suggestions with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, other members and Secretaries of various departments of the Government of India.
The Chief Secretary had informed that ‘in principle’ approval has been given for construction of additional 600 km of roads in Bastar under Rashtriya Road project – 2 and Special Secretary (Home Ministry) has assured that implementation of this proposal will be done on priority.
The approval was also granted for sanctioning Rs 65 crore for expansion of telecom services and increasing connectivity in remote areas. The amount will be utilized for expansion of districts to development blocks connectivity in Bastar and expedite execution of 402 towers in the first phase and 1028 telecom towers in the second phase.
In a bid to strengthen education system, in principle approval was given for declaration of 10 lWE affected blocks as educationally backward blocks. During the meeting, approval was given for sanction of additional hostels for girls and upgrade ‘Kasturba Gandhi girls’ schools to high schools. The approval was also given for providing assistance to ‘Vidya Mitan Yojana’ under National Mission for Secondary Education.