Chhattisgarh to study best practices of BJP, non-BJP ruled states

IIM-A to conduct MDP for Chhattisgarh government officers

Commending Gujarat government's policies and incentives for attracting industry, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Friday said that his government was keen on visiting both BJP and non-BJP ruled states for learning their best practices.

Singh was in town to announce a three day management development programme (MDP) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) that around 35 Chhattisgarh government officials will undergo to be trained in the area of public private partnership (PPP) model in infrastructure which the chief minister said should help officials in creating a PPP model best suited for Chhattisgarh.

 

"We will meet the Gujarat chief minister and senior secretaries. We would also like to visit every two months and study best practices of other states, even those not ruled by BJP. We are in a learning stage right now and want to learn what we can do better in our state. Other states are performing much better than us. For instance, we want to see the upcoming GIFT City project in Gujarat given that we have started the smart city concept in the new Raipur region where all utilities are being constructed underground," Singh said.

Talking about Chhattisgarh's GSDP, Singh said that while the Naxal problem has been impacting the same, the state is confident to grow at about 8-9 per cent in the coming years on the back of PPP driven infrastructure development, especially in the areas of rail, road and communication connectivity, coupled with growth in education and health sectors.

 

"For the past five years, we have maintained a GSDP growth rate at around 8.5 to 9 per cent. We expect to maintain the same for the coming years as we focus on improving infrastructure like rail, road and telecom connectivity. In the next five years, we want to be and have the potential to be in the top four states," Singh told reporters here.

Singh attributed the state government's focus on developing a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to execute important infrastructure projects as the factor that could play a role in the state's growth in future.

Commenting further on the prevailing Naxal problem in parts of the state, Singh said,"When I took over as the CM, there were around 23,000 policemen in our force. We had to invest a huge amount in recruiting new force, which now stands at around 67,000 personnel."

As of now, Chhattisgarh, which has about 48-50 per cent families under Below Poverty Line (BPL), has limited resources to meet the requirement of infrastructure like road connectivity, railway connectivity and irrigation among others.

"We have almost half of national average of such infrastructure. These are our challenges. The state has 45 per cent forest cover, 32 per cent of the population is tribal population and 48-50 per cent are BPL families. So there can't be a single model for this state," Singh added.