GUWAHATI : Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain has requested all concerned district and state level functionaries to do detail resource mapping in the districts identified in the backward segments and prepare achievable action plan.
Reviewing the works undertaken for comprehensive development of the seven Aspirational Districts of Assam at the Assam Administrative Staff College here on Thursday, the minister put emphasis on the idea of NITI Aayog to develop the backward district in mission mode with a targeted approach. The Union Minister further informed that he would carry outbid-monthly review meeting to take stock of the work done in the last two months and the works proposed to be taken up in the coming days.
Participating in the meeting, Assam Chief Secretary V K Pipersenia in his remarks appealed to the concerned deputy commissioners and state prabhari officers to put their best efforts to make this programme a reality and to prepare action plan such that it is achieved by 2022. He also requested all concerned officials to identify gaps at village level and prepare action plan at village level/micro level. The Chief Secretary further categorically appealed all the senior officers of Assam government to give special emphasis for extending their support for implementation of the activities identified for the Aspirational Districts.
It is to be noted that, the NITI Aayog has identified 115 Backward Districts in the Country for convergence, integration and focused attention which includes seven districts of Assam viz. Hailakandi, Dhubri, Barpeta, Darrang, Goalpara, Baksa and Udalguri. For focused development the Government of India has already appointed Central Prabhari Officers and the Government of Assam has also appointed one State Prabhari Officer for each identified District.
The main strategy of this initiative is to ensure effective convergence between various Central and State Government programmes, establishment of an efficient feedback mechanism and to provide a platform replicating best practices from other districts. The basic indicators taken for uplift of these backward districts are: health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill formation, basic infrastructure and strategy.