Gujarat proactively implementing social welfare schemes-Rupani

New Delhi : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has said his government is proactively implementing various social welfare schemes with the aim of ensuring overall benefit to society.Participating in the fourth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aaayog on Sunday, Rupani highlighted several path-breaking initiatives taken up by his government.

He informed that Gujarat has achieved an average double-digit growth in agriculture in the past one-and-a-half decades. Under the micro-irrigation programme, more than 41.25 lakh acre agriculture land has been covered and state government is providing financial assistance of upto 70 percent to small and marginal farmers, while 85 percent to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers.The chief minister also informed that arrangements have been made to give zero percent interest agriculture loan to farmers.

"In the current financial year, we have purchased 10.75 lakh metric tons of peanut, cotton, gram (chana), tur dal etc at minimum support price at cost of Rs.4900 crore, which was a historical decision of the state government," he added.

Turning his focus on the soil health card, he apprised that the state government-owned companies GSFC and GNFC, giving guidance to farmers that how to use fertiliser properly as per requirement of crops, resulting into optimal consumption of fertilisers and increased productivity of crops.

Highlighting the Sufalam Jal Abhiyan initiative, a month-long drive dedicated to deepen of water bodies and conserving water in the state which included 13000 pond reservoir and 3000 check dams, Rupani informed that the project which was initiated on May 1, 2018, has turned into a mass outreach campaign, wherein more than 2.60 lakh workers were engaged in water conservation and harvesting worksites across the state, generating 82 lakh man-days and creating 12000 lakh cubic feet of additional water storage capacity. This initiative also helped to restore the life to 32 rivers in the state, he added.

Gujarat, he said, is also actively promoting medical tourism by providing medical infrastructure across the state.
In order to boost the Ayushman Bharat Yojna, he said that the state government has successfully completed the first round of data collection drive in 33 districts of Gujarat.The state government has also signed a MoU with National Health Agency for implementation of the programme.

Gujarat, Rupani said, is already implementing the Mukhyamantri Amrutam (MA) Scheme, which provides financial coverage of Rs. 3 lakh for tertiary care and Rs. 5 lakh for transplantation. The state government also intends to implement the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksh Misssion (PMRSSM) in alliance with Mukhyamantri Amrutam (MA) scheme, he stated.

"We are also giving flavoured milk to children and pregnant women for improving and enriching the level of nutrition in 20 districts of state. Besides "Take Home Ration' scheme will also be implemented shortly in collaboration with Amul," Rupani said.

He said Gujarat will celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in a big way on October 2, 2019. The government is also planning to organise programmes such as Gandhi and cleanliness, Gandhi and Gramothan Gandhi and Swavlamban Swadeshi (Khadi) Make in India, Gandhivan (plantation drive) to mark the occasion. Gujarat was declared open defection free state on October 2, 2017.

He also informed that an additional 4.25 lakh tax -payers had been registered under GST in the state and Gujarat is one of the top three states in terms of the total number of filing the monthly returns. Gujarat is also number one in country in e-way bill generation. The state government is using the GeM platform in government purchase on a large scale.

Gujarat has emerged at the top on the NITI Aayog's composite water management index. Rupani invited all dignitaries to visit Gujarat to see the water management model.He also asserted other key initiatives like promotion of digital payments, Namo e-tablets & Namo Wi-FI, GyanKunj programme, CM apprenticeship scheme etc in the meeting.Dr. J.N. Singh, Chief Secretary, also attended the meeting.