Chief Minister Raghubar Das has showcased before NITI Ayog a Jharkhand where pro-poor centric development works were being carried out in unprecedented speed with utmost care. In 3rd NITI Ayog Governing Council meeting at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Sunday, the CM thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving development a new definition under theory of cooperative federalism and said that Jharkhand was well ahead of the States in translating verses of the theory into reality.
In the meeting where Chief Ministers and representatives of States and Union Government were present, the CM said that the State had prepared and sent a long term vision document of the State to Ayog. “This document carries a 15-year roadmap of eliminating poverty, improvement in education level and quality, skill development and employment, doubling farmers’ income by 2022 which is also a pet vision of the PM, water conservation, energy for all, drinking water and sanitation, and formulating class oriented development plans for downtrodden,” said the CM.
The CM also took the opportunity to inform the Ayog during meeting that Jharkhand was among the first states to establish agriculture equipment bank to provide farm equipments to farmers at low cost. “This is being supported by establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras in every Sub-Division and one cold storage in every district,” shared Das with the Ayog. At the same time, the PM suggested the State to speed up central plans like Swachh Bharat Mission, skill development, digital payment, One Nation One Tax and other such plans.
Counting priorities before his government, the CM said on the occasion that women empowerment and development of fundamental infrastructure remained among top priorities so far, and were going to lead the list ahead, too. “We have come up with 33 percent reservation for women in police recruitment. Bus service in every women college will be started from current financial year. As many as 57 Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya have been added and plans like Mukhyamantri laxmi ladli Yojna, Mukhyamantri Vidya laxmi Yojna and other such plans are being initiated. The government is seriously looking at providing all round power within another three years to under fundamental infrastructure plans,” the CM said.
Presenting a glimpse of skill development programmes, the CM said that the government had come up with the idea of providing skill development to all students and tracking for their employment. “A mega skill development centre in every district is in pipeline. We are working on establishing commercial vehicle training centre in every district in association with NSDC. Tie-ups with companies like Oracle, Cisco, Siemens and HP are expected to provide skill development training to at least 5 lakh youth every year,” the CM said.
He also took the occasion to thank the PM for inaugurating Multi-Modal Transport Hub in Sahibganj over river Ganga and said that the government was working on improving quality of road infrastructure in the State. He also said that four Municipal Corporations, 22 blocks, 694 Panchayats and 3,945 revenue villages were turned Open Defection Free (ODF) so far in the State. Das requested from the Ayog to help State through providing a chunk of Swachh Bharat Fund, so that the process of turning the State ODF could be accelerated.