Will make ‘nawa Chhattisgarh’ with new priorities and new standards of development
New Delhi : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel today said that questions will be raised about the government’s way of working when a large population in Chhattisgarh is malnourished, uneducated, is suffering from illness, homeless and landless despite of the state being rich and prosperous in terms of minerals and natural resources.
He was speaking at a function organized at India International Centre here on “Changing Chhattisgarh under new leadership”. Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said that standard which increases per capita income on one hand and poverty on the other cannot be accepted. “When my government came into power, new standards were set with a clear vision of working towards the development of the state,” he added.
Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and other scholars and dignitaries were present at the function.
The chief minister said that those who had the habit of looking at things with negative perspective cannot solve the problems of 2 crore people of Chhattisgarh. He added that his government’s priority are those scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, farmers, villagers, women, small businessmen, youths and new generation who will take over the country and the state in future.
Questioning the previous government, the chief minister said that Chhattisgarh leads the country in production of steel, cement, tin and aluminum but despite all these resources 37.60 per cent children under the age of five is malnourished in the state and 41.50 per cent women in the age group of 15-49 years are suffering from anemia.
He added that the main reason behind debacle of the previous government in Chhattisgarh was people’s anger and reaction on their situation. He maintained that figures issued by Niti Aayog prove that people of Chhattisgarh were angry with the previous government, which was in power for last 15 years.
He said that in a short span of just seven months, his government has created an environment of trust and faith amongst the people of Chhattisgarh. He added that his government has taken concrete steps towards lowering poverty and uplifting the standard of living of people.
Elaborating on the steps, he said that his government strengthened the economic condition of farmers by increasing the MSP on paddy to Rs 2500 per quintal. He added that the state government has adopted the policy of moving ahead with the heritage and took initiative of reviving economy and environment with the concept “narwa, garwa, ghurwa, baadi”.
He further stated that his government took various steps such as ensuring equal development opportunities for SC/ST, decision to return land acquired for setting up industries, announcement to provide 32 per cent reservation to ST, 13 per cent to SC and 27 per cent to OBC. The chief minister said that in the direction of administrative decentralization, his government has decided to form a new district, ‘Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi’ and 25 new tehsils.
Explaining the vision of his government, he said the government will form employee selection board with an aim to giving priority to local youths in government jobs, increase in remuneration of anganwadi workers, recruitment of 15 thousand permanent teachers, initiative to provide universal health scheme for all, setting up of 200 food parks, Jawahar setu Yojana for providing road facility in remote villages etc.
On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on October 2, 2019, each gram panchayat in the state will start providing free nutritious food daily, he said, adding that this will be a remarkable step towards rescuing the state from malnutrition and anemia.