Shillong, Oct 17: Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar, during his maiden tour to Shillong, also visited IT Park at Mawdiangdiang along with chief minister Conrad K Sangma.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar said developed state is a serious business and GDP growth is not an indicator of it. “Developed status has certain elements and they take time and Meghalaya under the leadership of Conrad K Sangma with the 10 guarantees is aimed at making Meghalaya a developed state,” he said.
He also added that while aspiring to be a developed state but to aspire with rational approach taking into consideration availability of resources and capacity of human resources is important while aspiring to be a developed state.
The Vice-President also added that in the developmental growth certain things certain things have to grow on their own like roads, connectivity etc but futuristic outlook in creating those infrastructures also need to kept in mind.
He also expressed happiness that while aspiring to be a developed state the focus is on fundamentals like Education, Health, Technology, Skill Development, Farming, Sports and Music etc.
Earlier, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma presented the way forward to the Vice-President during his maiden visit to Shillong.
Sangma said Meghalaya has embarked upon a mission to push growth and development. He said that the state government has identified key areas to achieve the target of “Developed Meghalaya by 2032”, when the state celebrates in 60 years.
He told the vice president that “Meghalaya model of development” is laid on the foundation of four pillars – creating aspirations, collaborating with communities and stakeholders, capacity building and forging partnership.
Citing challenges of 7,000 villages in the state, which are geographically remote, rural and hilly, the chief minister said, “We have identified the concerns and the problems of the state and have rolled out programmes to benefit the youth, women and the farmers. We are moving forward to propel the economic agenda of the state”.
He said that the GSDP of the state was far below the national average prior to 2020-21, but post 2021-22 the state has seen 15% growth, with increase in investment in different social sectors, own tax collection going up, absorption of central taxes, and funding from the 15th Finance Commission including investment made through Externally Aided Projects (EAPs).
He also informed that the size of the state budget has increased from roughly ₹12,000 cr to ₹25,000 cr currently. He further said that the capital expenditure has increased by 2.75 times, amongst other initiatives taken by the government to accelerate growth.
He further told the Vice-President on the ongoing initiative to promote value additional in agriculture sector, value chain and marketing, promoting of sports and music, education, healthcare, which has been prioritised by the government.
