A Government Wedded to Development

Well into 49^th years of its existence Madhya Pradesh is going to enter its golden jubilee year this November. If one were to look at its journey of close to five decades it would become quite clear that while the heartland state has traversed a long distance in the field of development, it still leaves a lot to be desired in various sectors.

The last decade was a watershed for entire country in respect of development. The period witnessed an unprecedented boom in almost all sectors throughout the country. But the state failed to take full advantage of the unprecedented opportunities created during the period due, mainly, to lack of requisite infrastructure. It has cost the state dearly in terms of development indicators. As a result the state with a glorious history and rich cultural heritage still carries the stigma of being a member of the BIMARU states.

The present government led by the Chief Minister Shri Babulal Gaur seems committed to baling the state out of the pitiable contradiction of being a rich land inhabited by the poor. Going by the fast pace of development works going on across the state and the passion of the Chief Minister Shri Babulal Gaur to ensure fast and balanced development one can say that the state is all set to catch up on the lost opportunities. During last one and half years the government has taken fruitful initiatives towards integrated development of villages, cities, construction and upgradation of roads, improving power supply, restoring people’s faith in the system, safeguarding the interests of weaker sections and boosting industrialization besides taking concrete measures to improve the situation in power sector.

In keeping with its promise of ensuring an integrated development of villages, the state government embarked upon an ambitious Gokul Gram scheme. In a befitting tribute to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhya, a visionary and a champion of the cause of rural India, the scheme was launched on his birthday on September 2004. Under this, 20 thousand villages, selected in consultation with Members of Parliament and MLAs, are to be developed in an integrated manner as Gokul Grams in five years. Through convergence of resources and schemes of 19 departments a number of activities pertaining to infrastructure development, human resources development, drinking water supply, education, health etc are being carried out in right earnest in Gokul Grams. So far, 1150 Gokul Grams have already been selected. Special attention is being paid to plantation, ground water conservation, construction of flush latrines, promoting bio farming, enrolment and retention of children in schools etc. Three cows each are being provided to poor families under Godan Scheme in Gokul Grams to supplement their income. This year a provision of Rs. 19 crore has been made in the state’s budget for Gokul Grams, which is over and above the funds available for the different schemes being implemented there. For the first time financial assistance has been provided to the farmers whose crops were damaged by pests in the state.

It has been decided to develop Gokul Forests in Gokul Grams and priority will be given to plantation of aonla, neem, Pipal etc in these forests.

The various rural development schemes are being implemented in right earnest. Employment worth 581.39lakh mandays has been generated through 1.69 lakh works spending Rs.632.79 crore under Sampurna Gramin Rojgar Yojana. Under the Food for Work Programme implemented in 15 districts of the state 389 works have been completed generating employment worth 114 lakh mandays. Under Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana over 2 lakh self-help groups have been constituted of which more than fifty percent of women. These groups have collected a capital of over Rs. 76 crore by way of small savings. Under the scheme irrigation facilities have been augmented at a cost of Rs. 154crore and 18 special projects have been sanctioned for plantation, which would provide employment to over one lakh families. Besides, 834 works have been completed at a cost of Rs. 94 crore under Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana.Under watershed development programme works relating to checking soil erosion, water conservation and vegetation has been carried out in 24 lakh hectares. It has led to rise in ground water level and a large single- crop area has been converted to two-crop area.

A Rs. 600crore World Bank aided District Poverty Initiative Project is being executed in 53 blocks of 14 districts benefiting 2908 villages. So far 1,92,000families have been provided better livelihood at a cost of Rs. 190 crore so far under it.

A Rural Livelihood Project is being implemented in 760 villages of seven predominantly tribal districts- Jhabua , Dhar , Barwani , Mandla , Shahadol, Dindori and Anooppur. It aims at creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for the needy people .

Agriculture is the mainstay of state’s economy. Without development of agriculture progress of the state in not possible. In realization of this fact the state government has provided special thrust to agricultural development. The state government has set a target to double the income of farmers by year 2008 by increasing agricultural production and productivity. The government has ensured adequate power supply to farm sector to facilitate smooth farm operations. Eight agriculture science centres have been set up with the cooperation of Government of India and proposals for another 11 centres have been sent. Soil testing centres have been set up in 68 mandis. The research centres associated with Jawaharlal Agriculture University are being strengthened.

A well-conceived Krishak Mitra Yojana has been implemented to reach out to the farmers in the 52 thousand odd villages of the sate for maintaining a live contact with them.

Top priority has been given to increase irrigation potential in the state. A target has been fixed to increase irrigated area from 39 percent to 50 percent. Irrigation potential of 1.2lakh hectares has been added during last one and half years. Adequate budgetary provision has been made and funds have been mobilized from other sources as well to complete the ongoing irrigation projects. Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is being implemented in earnest to pave the way of all round development of rural areas

Maintaining a balance between urban and rural development the state government launched a special scheme christened Ayodya Basti Yojana on the birthday of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya for all round development of urban slums. As many as 357 bastis have been selected under the scheme in the very first year. A provision of Rs. 40 crore has been made in the budget for the scheme. The foundation stone has already been laid for the Rs. 240 crore project to bring Narmada water to Bhopal for drinking water purpose. Assistance has been obtained from the Asian Bank for a Rs. 1366 crore project for improvement of environment and drinking water supply. Additional assistance and incentives have been provided to all the urban civic bodies to improve civic amenities in their respective areas. Special attention has been paid to decongestion of cities and towns by removing encroachments and developing hawkers’ corners there. Traffic arrangement is also being improved there.

The state government has received the proposals for establishment of industries involving a capital investment of Rs. 30,000 crore following the congenial atmosphere created after introduction of the new industrial promotion policy-2004 in the state. The docks have been cleared for the Rs. 9000 crore Bina refinery project. Investment of Rs, 16,000 crore in new power generation plants, Rs. 800 crore Mahavir Spilling Mill, Budni, Rs. 1800 crore auto testing track, and investment of Rs. 3000 crore by Hot Line, J.P. Group, A.C.C. etc are some important achievements in this field. A Rs. 80crore project for supply of water to industries with private sector’s cooperation is being implemented at Dewas. This is the first project of its kind in the country. The Special Economic Zone near Indore is also developing very fast. 

Madhya Pradesh had earned a very bad reputation for pitiable condition of roads in last over one decade that took its toll of development in various fields and regions of the state. The present government put the construction and upgradation of roads on the list of top priorities. Over 41 percent higher budget provision has been made for this purpose. In last one and half years road length of about 5650 km has been added and 4600 km road length repaired in the state. The plan is to construct and upgrade about 60 thousand km roads. The Madhya Pradesh Development Corporation has been created to take care of the work. The year 2005 is being observed as the Year of Roads during which every month would see the completion of one important road.

Priority has been given to construction of roads, which connect district headquarters to divisional headquarters and the state capital. Ujjain, Indore, Hoshangabad, Sagar, Gwalior , Jabalpur and Rewa divisional headquarters and 38 of total 48 district headquarters have already been connected by quality roads.

Equal attention has been paid to strengthen main district roads. Under Bond-BOT scheme 2022 km roads are under construction. Work of road construction costing about Rs. 250 crore has been taken up with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank. In the first phase a sum of Rs. 12 crore has already been spent. The Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation proposes to construct 31 roads measuring 2900 km in next two years. One would, thus, see that Madhya Pradesh is poised to shed the stigma of being a state with unspeakably bad or virtually no roads.

The gap between power generation and demand had been about 2000 MW since the year 2000 in the state. It made an adverse effect on industry, trade, agriculture and studies of the students. Hydel power generation of 1000 MW has been installed during last one and half years. The present state government improved power supply by purchasing power worth Rs. 8 to 10 crore every day on an average. The target is to make the state self-reliant in power sector by year 2007. It paid special attention to increasing power generation. The 1000 MW capacity Indira Sagar Project has been completed ahead of schedule. Sardar Sarovar Project would provide 242 MW while 20 MW capacity Bansagar Hydel Power Project and 40 MW Madikheda Hydel Power Project would be completed this year. The 500 MW Birsinghpur Project would be completed by 2006 and 210 MW Amarkantak thermal power project by January 2007. Besides, efforts are being made to complete the 525 MW Omkareshwar Hydel Power Project by providing greater resources to finish the ongoing construction work. Negotiations are on for a 2000 MW thermal power project at Khandwa with the cooperation of Gujarat Government, a 360 MW gas based Aban thermal power project at Jhabua, 2000 MW coal based Mahan thermal power project of ESSAR, 400 MW Maheshwar hydel power project and 375 MW minor hydel power projects and the target is to complete them in next four years.

As part of the efforts to improve power supply 35000 faulty transformers have been replaced and over 5.25 lakh temporary power connections have been provided to the farmers. Over 4000 km transmission/distribution lines have been laid. 

The state government taken effective measures to restore people’s faith in the system. The establishment of Gram Sachivalayas (vllage secretariats) has facilitated quick redressal of public grievances in rural areas. These Sachivalayas are disposing off about three lakh cases every month on an average. The government has taken a serious view of absenteeism of government servants. So far, services of 245 doctors have been terminated and action is in final stage to terminate another 218 doctors found absent from duty without due permission or leave. Over 52,500 petty cases pending with the courts have been withdrawn and action is in progress to withdraw another 31100 cases.

Simhastha , the world’s largest religious congregation , Lok Sabha elections , the elections of civic bodies , panchayats bodies and krishi upaj mandis have passed off peacefully and barring a few sporadic disturbance the overall law and order situation has been far better than before during the last one and half years.

Efforts are being made to impart suitable training to the police personnel to effectively deal with cyber and white-collar crimes and the concept of community policing is being concretized in the state. The Gram and Nagar Suraksha Samitis are being further strengthened. 

Over last one and half years special attention has been paid to bring qualitative improvement in school education. As many as 5734 new school buildings have been constructed and another 5500 are under construction. Majority of these buildings are in rural areas. There is a target to construct 10,000 additional rooms in the school buildings. Over five lakh fresh enrolments have been made in schools and 99 percent retention has been ensured. Enrolment of school children has gone up from 97.7 percent to 98.8 percent and the drop out rate has gone down from 32 percent to 21 percent. . A school for excellence has been set up in each block this year. Free uniforms were provided to 45 lakh girl schools and 35000 bi-cycles have been distributed to girls getting admission in 9th class this year. Besides, 40,000 posts of teachers are being filled up through contract teachers. These teachers are being appointed subject-wise.

In addition to ensuring proper implementation of the ongoing health and family welfare schemes the state government has introduced a Deen Dayal Antyodaya Upchar Yojana for providing free treatment to BPL scheduled caste and scheduled tribe families. So far, 12 lakh families have been issued free treatment cards under the scheme. So far , 17 thousand people have benefited from it.

Similarly, another scheme has been launched to provide free transport facility to women of poor scheduled castes and scheduled tribes families to facilitate institutional delivery. As many as 19,000 women have benefited from it so far. Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country to prepare and implement the Integrated District Health Action Plans.

The state government is going to launch a Dhanvantari Vikaskhand Yojana from August 15 this year. It aims at ensuring proper health and medical facilities to children and women and to cater to medical requirements of the needy. Under a pilot project 50 blocks have been selected to be developed as model blocks in respect of health facilitites.

The state government has taken fresh and fruitful initiatives in almost all sectors giving an impetus to the development of the state. Going by the unbelievable fast speed of works being carried out throughout the state one can expect that it is only a matter of time before Madhya Pradesh becomes one of the most developed states of the country^.

Shivani