GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday underlined the significant gains made in revenue collection and capital expenditure as well as implementation of different flagship schemes while attending the 4th meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, which was held at New Delhi with the Prime Minister Narendra Mod ii the chair.
He also informed the measures taken up by the state government to ensure transparency and remove corruption in implementation of government schemes.
“The State’s own annual revenue has increased to Rs. 15,776 crore during 2017-18 against Rs. 12,847 crore in 2015-16. The expenditure during 2015-16 was Rs 41,929 crore which shot up to Rs 70,105 crore during 2017-18. The capital expenditure, during 2017-18 has increased to Rs.12,817 crore against Rs.4,919 crore during 2015-16, an increase of 160%”, he said.
Stating that for the first time in Assam, budget for the current fiscal was presented in electronic format, the Chief Minister informed that timely communication of budget allocation digitally in first week of April 2018 enabled the departments to initiate process for implementation of schemes without any loss of time.
He also informed that the transition to GST in Assam, by and large, has been smooth and hassle free. He further added that the state government has developed the seven-year strategy plan and three-year action plans for different sectors, keeping Sustainable Development Goals in view as advised by NITI Aayog.
Informing the new initiatives of the state government, Sonowal highlighted the Chief Minister Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana, which is to be implemented with financial outlay of Rs 30,000 crore covering all 25,425 villages of the State to double farmers’ income by 2022. He also informed that the state government has launched its own scheme Atal Amrit Abhiyan covering 92% of population with annual income less than Rs 5 lakhs for six critical disease groups. Till date, 2500 persons have availed cashless treatment under the scheme in empanelled public and private hospitals, he added
He also informed that so far 9.51 lakh farmers have been provided with soil health cards in the state. Meanwhile, works for second cycle has also been started and distribution of cards will be completed by March, 2019. He also said that the state government has taken up upgradation of 10 wholesale markets and 65 rural haats under World Bank aided project, APART
The Chief Minister also underscored the achievements made in implementation of national flagship schemes like MGNREGS, Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission, e-NAM, Mission Indradhanush and Poshan Abhiyaan. Moreover, progress made in the execution of aspirational districts project was also highlighted by the chief minister during the meeting.
Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar, several Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of States, members of the Governing Council, officials of the Union and the State governments were present in the meeting.