PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said that the State government has started a ‘three-pillar and nine-point policy’ to strike a balance between economy and ecology in Uttarakhand. This policy will prove to be an important step towards achieving the goal of sustainable development, he said. The CM was addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Achievers Awards ceremony held at his residence on Monday.
He said that three years ago, the State was ranked 9th in the SDG India Index and now it is ranked first in the country. The CM said that the State has achieved significant achievements in areas like poverty alleviation, food security, drinking water and sanitation, sex ratio at birth, clean energy, urban development, financial inclusion and climate change. He said that the State government is working to strengthen these areas through schemes like chief minister women entrepreneurship promotion scheme, solar energy, smart city mission and CM urban livelihood scheme.
Dhami said that the State has many challenges such as climate change, disaster management, access to health services, sustainable agriculture and water resource management, where effective work is needed to be done. “Maintaining the first rank in SDG is a challenge, we have to take the State forward with everyone’s collective efforts,’’ he said.
The CM said that the effect of correcent policies have an incremental effect in the State treasury.
He said that in the last three years many efforts were made for simplifying policies and generating revenue. Dhami said that the revenue from mining has increased from Rs 400 crore to Rs 1,200 crore. Similarly, revenue generation in the state is also increasing rapidly in other sectors, he claimed.
In the programme the CM felicitated 16 ( three persons, nine institutions and four industrial establishments) with the SDG Achiever Award. He also released the book ‘Agragami 2.0’ which is about innovative initiatives being undertaken by the persons and institutions awarded last year’s SDG Awards and the SDG Index Uttarakhand 2023-2024.
In the district-wise SDG ranking released by the Centre for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPPGG) for the year 2023-24, Nainital, Dehradun and Uttarkashi districts were ranked first, second and third respectively. In the programme, the CM congratulated the people and institutions bestowed with the awards.
He said that the award winners are the real brand ambassadors of the State’s development.
MLAs Savita Kapoor and Durgeshwar Lal, chief secretary Radha Raturi, UNDP representative Dr. Angela Lusugi, former CS N Ravishankar, principal secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram, vice chairman of rural development and migration prevention commission SS Negi, ACEO of CPPGG Manoj Pant and others were present in the programme.
