From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday rejected the suggestions from various quarters that the State should adopt Gujarat model in order to be on the fast track of development and stated that the model adopted that had been by his government was alright for the State.
Claiming that Assam was progressing well in all sectors since the Congress government under his leadership assumed power in 2001, Gogoi said, “Narendra Modi is a friend of top-notch businessmen. Gujarat model of development is not meant for poor but for rich people. We want to follow Assam model of development which encompasses interests of all sections of the society.”
Gogoi said that in order to accelerate the pace of development in Assam, he had started strict monitoring of all the departments and ministries in the State. “I want to see action. I will monitor functioning of every ministries and every department. There will be no more free hand to any minister. Previously, I was giving free hand to some minister in running the affairs of their department, but now onwards functioning of every department would be monitored by me.”
Gogoi, however, said there was no immediate plan to reshuffle his Cabinet. He dismissed the criticism of the opposition BJP which has alleged sluggish growth of Assam and stated that the condition of Assam was pitiable when the BJP-led NDA government was in power in the Centre.
Gogoi also said that his government would be able to implement the Food Security Ordinance recently issued by the Congress-led UPA government on November 19 next well before expiry of the six-month deadline prescribed by the Central government.
He said estimated 2.25 Crore people in Assam would benefit from the schemes as per the guidelines of the Government of India. He said the State now have 7.04 lakh beneficiary families under Antodoya Scheme, 20 lakh beneficiary families under CM’s Anna Yojona and over 12 lakh BPL families. All these families together form about 40 lakh families who are likely to benefit from the Food Security Scheme.
“We will, of course make a new list of beneficiaries and a Group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted with ministers from all the concerned departments to prepare the list of beneficiaries under the Food Security Scheme to be implemented,” Gogoi said.
Assam government intends to hang the first list of beneficiaries on August 1 next so that objections and claims related to the list could be disposed of by October 2. The objections and claims will be handled by respective Gaon Sabhas in rural areas and Town Committees in urban areas. We intend to launch the scheme in Assam on November 19 next.