Chief Minister Addresses State-level Independence Day Function

Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje called upon the youth and the people of Rajasthan to contribute in making an empowered, prosperous and happy Rajasthan while celebrating the Independence Day and paying tribute to the martyrs and freedom fighters. She said that we were a country with 65% of its population being young. Keeping the passion and spirit of this young population intact, we have to protect the real sense of freedom, she said.

The CM was addressing the state-level Independence Day function at Patel Maidan, Ajmer on Monday. She announced for a new initiative of launching special campaign for redressing gram panchayat-related grievances at panchayat-level camps. She said that these campaign would take off from October 2, the birth date of Mahatma Gandhi.

Smt. Raje further announced that this year, additional amount of Rs. 1500 crore would be made available to farmers as interest-free agricultural loans through cooperative banks. She said that district collectors would be authorised to issue permit for removal of gypsum layer from khatedari land of size upto five hectares. This would increase productivity of soil and thus benefit the farmers.

The CM said that women associated with self-help groups would be linked with livelihood projects and Mahatma Gandhi NREGS to make them self-dependent. Through this, they would be able to get works for digging water ponds, leveling, making kachcha bunds, wormy compost production and shed construction for animals at their own land plots. She said that SC/ST candidates would be given 5% relaxation in minimum eligibility marks for ministerial and subordinate services.

Smt. Raje said that the quality of education had improved due to reforms initiated in this sector two and half years ago. Secondary-level results had improved from 56% in 2013 to 70% in 2016. Similar improvement of 34% to 47% was witnessed in Senior Secondary level Science Stream. She also talked about the long pending issue of Vidyarthi Mitras and said that very soon some positive solution would be arrived at.

The CM said that latest IT technology enabled centres would be started at 12 State Institutes of Education Management and Training for modern training to teachers. Emphasizing on the need to link youth of the state with skill development, Smt. Raje said that several important measures including re-constitution of Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood had been taken in this regard. Vocational Education was being imparted right from the secondary school level. Big corporates had partnered with ITIs in almost all districts.

Smt. Raje announced for setting up driving training institutes at all divisional headquarters along with two others at Sikar and Relmagra. Also, by December 13 units of National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development would be established at all government ITIs of the state. She said that in August 2016 a record 21 thousand apprentices were nominated at various skill development centres in the state. Also, the state government had provided opportunities for employment to 9,90,000 person in both government and non-government sectors.

The CM said that all ambulance services would be integrated and operated from a single point with the name Jeevanvahini Integrated Ambulance Scheme. For this, one had to dial 104 or 108 and response time would be reduced with integration of different ambulance services, she added. She said that for ensuring quality health services in rural areas, 295 primary health centres would be converted into model PHCs. By 2017, this number would increase to 900 and Ayurveda and Yoga practices would also be made available at these centres along with allopathy treatments. For optimum utilization of different medical equipments lying unused at different district health institutes, Equipments Management and Maintenance System would be launched, she said.

Smt. Raje said that power, water and road sectors were extremely important for development of the state. Focusing on these, the state government increased its annual budget allocation for the power, drinking and public works department by 192%, 87.55% and 140.87% respectively. She said that in second phase, 2000 panchayats would have Gramin Gaurav Paths, along with upgradation of 500 kilometers of rural roads as district roads and laying of 4,293 kilometers of roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna by spending Rs. 1,612 crore, she added.

The CM also declared Ajmer as open defecation free (ODF) district and said that very soon Pali, Churu, Jhunjhunun and Ganganagar. By this date, 2,329 gram panchayats had been declared ODF. Listing various development schemes, she said that on every single day, Rs. 13 crore were being spent on new drinking water projects, 125 hectares of land was being connected with drip and sprinkler water system, 155 youths were getting skill development training, 1,065 youths were getting job opportunities, 2,940 persons were getting benefited with MUDRA yojna, 90 small and medium entreprises were being registered and 14 kilometers of roads were being laid by spending Rs. 4.54 lakh.

Jaipur, 15 August 2016