By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 10: Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Suman Bery on Tuesday said Meghalaya should prepare a roadmap to achieve its aspirational target of becoming a $10 billion economy.
“It is an aspirational target but it drives a lot of other activities and imposes consistency in the overall development programme,” he said responding to a query from The Shillong Times after a meeting with top officials representing various departments. “As you know, the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) believes that it is only by setting targets that you can galvanise, so the USD 10 billion economy target is aspirational,” Bery said.
Talking about the achievement of the state, he said Meghalaya is doing well. He said the state’s achievement in education and water is striking.
He said he was visiting Meghalaya as it is a part of his duty to visit each one of the states. “Meghalaya and NITI Aayog share a strong relationship in a number of areas and that relationship is taken forward to different levels,” Bery said, adding, “It was a tour d’horizon of all the development agenda of the state.”
He recalled that Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had called him to chair the development programme that existed earlier and the latest visit was to get the updates of what all have been achieved. “Of course, there are some issues that NITI Ayog tried to discuss with the state,” he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary DP Wahlang said they had a productive interaction with Bery. He said a range of issues, including border trade and border haats, were discussed.
Wahlang said the ceiling set up in externally-aided projects is an issue and the state government is hoping to overcome it with the help of NITI Aaayog.