Bhubaneswar: The state government Saturday urged the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) to provide internet and banking facilities to all gram panchayats (GP) of the 10 districts included under Aspirational Districts Programme.
A high-level meeting in this regard was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here at the Secretariat.
NITI Aayog’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant along with Pravari (in-charge) officers appointed by the Centre for the 10 districts among others attended the meeting.
The collectors of the 10 districts-Koraput, Gajapati, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Dhenkanal, Nabrangpur, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Malkangiri and Rayagada- participated in the discussion through videoconferencing.
Briefing media persons later, Padhi said, “During the meeting, we highlighted the problems of the 10 aspirational districts before the NITI Aayog.”
The Aayog’s CEO assured Padhi to act on the state’s demands.
Padhi specifically highlighted the lack of bank branches in about 70 per cent GPs of the state. “Internet connectivity, which is essential in the present era, is missing in most of the villages in our state. As a result, we are unable to implement various programmes like direct benefit transfer (DBT) under different schemes,” Padhi added.
“We’ve also requested for granting flexibility in various Central schemes as currently, we don’t have the flexibility to do so as per our requirement,” the Chief Secretary said.
It is worth mentioning here that the state government is providing 40 per cent grants for schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Swachh Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY).
If the state government wants to make small modifications, the Centre should grant permission for that, he added.
Besides, the state government also informed about the problems related to delay in release of fund for scholarships meant for the ST& SC students as out of the 10 aspirational districts in the state, seven are tribal sub-plan areas.
Calling attention to the burning issue of cash crunch in the banks and post offices in these 10 districts which is creating problems in paying the beneficiaries of different social schemes, Padhi said, “The commercial banks are not lending sufficient amount of crop loan to farmers.” The Aayog CEO assured the state to take up this issue with the commercial banks and the Department of Financial Services.
Lauding the state for its practical, positive and pertinent suggestions, NITI Aayog CEO in his response said, “We will take up the issues with respective ministries and find out appropriate solutions.”
“Our aim is to work in partnership with the state government. We work completely in a federal manner. We wish to converge the schemes of both the Central and state governments,” Kant said. He added that after integrating the schemes, they will try to implement them in the districts under the Aspirational District Programme.
Stating that the Chief Secretary made very constructive suggestions regarding modification of the rigid schemes of the Centre, Kant said, “15-20 suggestions have been given by Odisha. We’ll act on them. As the Odisha Government is a progressive government we wish to work in coordination.”
Notably, the Aspirational District Programme is an initiative of NITI Aayog for development of 115 backward districts of the country.
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