Gujarat chief minister Mr. Narendra Modi, who took over the office of chief minister on October 7, 2001, will complete 12 years at the helm of the state’s governance. Under Mr. Modi’s leadership Gujarat’s development journey has established unique identity and stature in the country and the World across.
Tomorrow - October 7, 2013, the present state government will enter into the 13th year under the leadership of Mr. Modi. This is record in the history of Gujarat’s political and public life making Mr. Modi as the longest serving chief minister for the state.
On this occasion, Gujarat government’s people’s welfare oriented achievements and an outline of all-round development has been presented in this article.
Remember the situation of Gujarat in the 21st Century… ravaged by the earthquake… windstorm and scarcity hit Gujarat…electricity deficiency…degraded agriculture and industrial sectors… unemployment problems…and so many other difficulties and challenges had gripped Gujarat. People of Gujarat who witnessed all these problems in the beginning of 21ST Century, have seen a new wave of change-transformation from the year 2001… all-round development has dawned and Gujarat is shining under it…people are witnessing their dreams and decisions getting realized…and the reason behind these is because Gujarat had initiated a ‘Panchamrut’ –inclusive and unstoppable development journey on October 7, 2001 under the leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi. Today with completion of twelve glorious years, this chapter of phenomenal development has got engraved in the hearts of the people of Gujarat.
For Gujarat, when it got carved out as separate state from the Brihan Mumbai State on May 1, 1960, all the Gujaratis took a pledge of creating a very special state of Gujarat. All the Gujaratis have been working so dedicatedly and contributing to the development of Gujarat and to realize the dreams initiating a ‘mahayagya’ where it has been following in the footsteps of Gandhiji, influenced by decision making power of Sardar Patel, piousness of Pandit Ravishankar and cohesiveness and simplicity of Induchacha… and because of the all the hard work and industrious efforts, Gujarat has been shining and became vibrant in entire World.
Gujarat’s development strategy could be attributed to enforcing of a focused 360 degree growth model and it has its over 6 crore of population at the centre stage of it. Because of its all-round development, it is not just the country but countries from around the globe are looking at Gujarat. State has adopted three-tier model focusing on proper development of industry, agriculture and service sector in the state. And, because of a balanced development of all these three sectors speed of Gujarat’s economic growth never goes into a slump.
Gujarat’s industrial development has attracted the entire world and it has become the growth engine of nation. Having 5% population of India, Gujarat’s achievements are exemplary and commendable. For entire country’s share, the state contributes around 98% of soda-ash, 80% of diamond polish and exports, salt production 75%, petrochemicals 62%, crude oil 53%, chemicals 51%, cargo handling 35% and natural gas (offshore) 30%. Because of an investor friendly environment Gujarat has been able to attract investment for over six Vibrant Summits.
Of the total DMIC corridor, state has around 60% share of it and 40% of freight corridor passes from Gujarat, and to leverage such opportunities Gujarat became first state to develop Special Economic Zones (SEZs). In Dholera it is building a city on the scale of an international business hub and GIFT City in Gandhinagar. For over 135 projects, the state has implemented plans in ports; power, road, water and other internal infrastructure needs worth Rs 1 lakh crore and these all are being done under PPP model.
In agriculture sector Gujarat has taken so many initiatives giving due importance to different aspects of the field. Linking knowledge and research of agri varsities to the farm under land to lab project and even introduced soil health card. With all such all round efforts, today it has annual agriculture produce touching worth Rs. 1.11 lakh crore which once was just Rs 9,000 crore. While cotton production has jumped from 21 lakh bales to 1.20 crore bales, 42 lakh farmers have got soil health card and 1.25 crore animals are being checked under health camps. Entire nation’s agriculture growth rate is around 3.5% while Gujarat is marching ahead of all over 10.7% rate of growth. In the beginning 40 years of Gujarat, only 6.30 lakh agriculture power connections were given while in last one decade it has given 4 lakh new connections. Similarly, the amount of electricity subsidy for farmers went up from Rs 300 crore to Rs 3000 crore. Completed canal work of Narmada for over 458 km and of 38 planned, works for 29 canals have been finished. Till date over Rs 35,000 crore have been spent on these works and generated electricity of 2160 crore unit from its hydro power plants.
For the development of service sector and making it people oriented, state has done micro level planning to take the fruits of development to each person of the state. It has made health services speedy and efficient. Over 500 ambulances under the 108 emergency services reach the affected people within few minutes and it has taken the problems of malnutrition head on to eradicate it and under this different projects are being implemented for strengthening, implementing and monitoring of the schemes and results. It has given 24 hour three-phase power supply and initiated mass programs for school enrollment and also to promote girl child education. Empowered the panchayats and became the first state to decentralize the powers.
On the IT front, Gujarat has made strides taking major initiatives on e-governance. It has laid over 1.5 lakh km of fiber cable network and linked majority of government functioning under Gswan making it Asia’s largest network. Chief Minister Mr. Modi handles people’s complaints online using Gswan while state has also become hub for green energy where so many projects have been implemented under solar, wind and canal-bed power production systems.
Correct yardstick of development of any state is based on the how much it has done for the deprived. Gujarat has given land plots to over 8 lakh below poverty line families in rural areas and over 1000 Garib Kalyan Mela are being held where over 85 lakh beneficiaries are directly awarded with benefits of over Rs 13,000 crore to do away with the middlemen.
For all-round development of Vanbandhu, state has implemented Rs 15000 crore Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana, Rs 11000 crore Sagarkhedu Yojana and Rs 13000 crore for urban poor. State government has always remained ever ready to be at the help of needy section of the society.
Under Mr. Modi’s leadership Gujarat has made progress in all the directions and not only for country but for entire World it has given a new inspiration for development.
