Gujarat to uphold position as role model of development, good governance in India: Bhupendra Patel

New Delhi [India], August 7 : Participating in the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday expressed his commitment to move forward with a determination to uphold the state as a role model of development and good governance in the country.
Speaking at the 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog here, Patel said Gujarat has earned first place in various categories of Good Governance Index, Logistics Performance Index, State Energy and Climate Index, Export Preparedness Index and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 3.0 released by the Government of India.

He said the state has scaled new heights of development through several ambitious projects like GIFT City, Dream City, 30 GW hybrid renewable energy park, Dholera SIR and Statue of Unity.
Referring to the initiatives and achievements of the urban sector in Gujarat, the Chief Minister said that the state government is fully committed to realising the dream of the Prime Minister of making Gujarat's cities world-class. Giving details of this, he said that for speedy development of cities, the state government has given top priority to various welfare schemes for planned urban development and citizen-oriented governance.
He informed that a three-tier urban development roadmap has been prepared for the planned development of the cities of the state.
The Chief Minister said that under this three-tier roadmap, the state government prepares and operates the City Development Plan (DP), Town Planning (TP) scheme and local area development plan with transparency. In Gujarat, the TP scheme is made with the consent and participation of the people. He also informed that more than 900 town planning schemes have been completed in Gujarat.
"Today GIFT City has emerged as a major financial and economic activity centre of the country through urban planning in line with the Prime Minister's vision of a futuristic city in Gujarat," said Patel.
He said that the state government has given permission to about 1 lakh development works in the last two years through an online development permission system for a speedy and transparent approval process of schemes in every city of the state. Not only this, a Uniform Common Development Control Regulation has been implemented for uniform building bylaws across the state.
Patel said that while giving priority to slum redevelopment in cities, the state government has started construction of 59,000 houses in 166 slums at a fast pace and 7,800 units of redevelopment has also been completed.
Chief Minister Patel threw light on the achievements made under agricultural diversification in Gujarat in detail.
In this regard, he said that Gujarat is today one of the advanced states in the country in the field of animal husbandry and milk production along with the development of the agriculture sector. He said that at the core of this agricultural revolution of Gujarat are innovative approaches like Krishi Mahotsav, Soil Health Card and Animal Health Fair, which were adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The Chief Minister said that the area under horticulture has increased by 300 per cent from 4.80 lakh hectares to 20 lakh hectares in the state in the last two decades. Similarly, there has been an increase of 65 per cent in the area under cultivation of pulses. He said that the cultivation of fruits like pomegranate, dates and Kamalam (dragon fruit) has also been included in the micro-irrigation system covering more area through SPV.
He said that Gujarat has announced a special scheme to increase the use of nano urea spraying through drone technology and under this 1.40 lakh acres of land will be covered this year.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister said that Gujarat has resolved to encourage natural farming by accepting the Prime Minister's call for 'back to basic' for natural farming. In this regard, he further said that by organizing public awareness programs at various levels about natural farming in the state, so far five and a half lakh farmers have been made aware of natural farming.
Patel further informed that Gujarat has the country's first National Digital Education Architecture like Vidya Samiksha Kendra equipped with modern technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data analysis.
He said that through this centre the process of online guidance and evaluation of all academic activities of schools, students and teachers of villages located in remote areas is done. Patel further informed that G-Shala App has been created to provide e-content in Gujarati for the education of the students of the state.
The 7th governing council meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was held at Rashtrapati Bhawan's Cultural Centre in the national capital on Sunday.
The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of the States and Union Territories, legislators, Lt Governors of UTs, Ex-Officio Members, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Full-Time Members of NITI Aayog and Union Ministers as Special Invitees. However, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar skipped the meeting.
Notably, this meeting is the first in-person meeting of the Governing Council since July 2019.
The agenda of the NITI Aayog meeting includes crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.