Author: Uday Mahurkar
Publication: India Today
Date: December 17, 2007
Introduction: If Development Alone Is The
Criterion Then Modi Gets Aaaa+ In His Six-Year Rule
JYOTIRGRAM POWER SCHEME: The scheme ensures
24-hour, three-phase domestic power supply to all 18,000 Gujarat villages,
spurring an economic revolution in villages and reverse migration from city
to villages in many parts.
GIRLS' EDUCATION SCHEME: The main feature
is that both ministers and IAS officers go to villages for three days in a
year to persuade parents to send their daughters to school. It has seen the
girl drop-out rate in schools sliding from 48 to three.
BETI BACHAO ANDOLAN: The Beti Bachao drive
of the Government aimed at preventing female foeticide through a joint awareness
campaign by government, NGOs and people's representatives has seen the sex-ratio
improve from 802 to 870 since 2001.
INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENT: The success of the
Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summits hosted by Modi received recognition
from RBI recently when it pegged the investment coming to Gujarat at Rs 76,000
crore which equals the figures of Maharahtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu
put together.
HIGHEST GROWTH RATE IN THE COUNTRY: Gujarat
registered the highest growth rate of 10.6 per cent in the country during
the first four years of the 10th five-year plan that ended last March as against
the national figure of 7.2 per cent during the same period.
NON-POPULIST GOVERNANCE BASED ON ACCOUNTABILITY:
A largely populist-free model of governance that aims at accountability. It
also means few sops to people. In the power sector the government has not
hesitated to slap cases on farmers indulging in power theft. This and other
measures ensured that the state's power set-up wiped out a combined loss of
Rs 2,200 crore and posted a profit of Rs 200 crore last year. The government
could carry out power reforms better and faster than most other states.
GOOD GOVERNANCE MARKED BY FISCAL DISCIPLINE:
Gujarat became a revenue surplus state from a revenue deficit state after
a gap of 15 years. The revenue deficit was Rs 6,700 crore when Modi tookover
in 2001. Two state PSUs Gujarat State Fertilizer Company and Gujarat Alkalies
and Chemicals which were running into losses turned into profit-making units.
PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION: The Government has
tried to involve people in governance, creating a rare model of people's participation.
For example, the urban development drive to upgrade small municipal towns
last year sent the tax collections soaring simply because the people were
motivated to pay their taxes. Developmental works worth Rs 300 crores were
also carried out with the help of private donations. When it celebrated e-governance
year last year the state got a huge number of computers as donations in villages
from local residents.
PETRO-CAPITAL OF INDIA: State PSU Gujarat
State Petrochemicals has made Gujarat the petro-capital of India by laying
a 2,200 km gas grid in the state of which 1,400 kms is already complete. Huge
natural gas and crude oil reserves were found in Krishna-Godavari basin. The
gas grid is expected to give a major fillip to industrial production because
gas is much cheaper to naptha which most industrial units had been using so
far.
ACHIEVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR: The state
has given soil health cards to more than half of the 38 lakh farmers in the
state to enable them to comprehend the quality of the soil on their farms
and decide on precise crop pattern and the right fertilisers. 700 scientists
from the four agricultural universities of the state have been involved in
educating the farmers on crop patterns and fertilisers. This move won praise
from eminent agro scientist, M.S. Swaminathan.
UNIQUE NATIONAL SECURITY MODEL: The state
has set up a unique security model based on tight vigilance and effective
action due to which not a single terror attack has taken place in Gujarat
in the last five years while cities like Delhi and Mumbai get hit by terrorists.
