Water crisis, law and order, tourism — what CMs said at NITI Aayog meeting

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami focused on the drinking water crisis affecting the state, and asked the Centre for special financial aid to set up a Spring and River Rejuvenation Authority in Uttarakhand — a body that will focus on water conservation, reviving water sources, and linking snow-fed rivers with rain-fed ones.

He also stressed the importance of promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas, reporting that the state had started two rural incubation centres and 110 growth centres as pilot projects. He sought technical and financial support from the central government to help expand the scheme further.

Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi suggested making use of Odisha’s 480 km long coastline to develop more ports in the state, seeking support for setting up large-scale industrial zones in areas around Dhamra and Gopalpur ports and developing greenfield ones at Astaranga, Palur, Bahuda, and Subarnarekha.

Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel announced the setting up of a think tank — the Gujarat State Institution for Transformation (GRIT) — to help the state chart its roadmap for the ‘Viksit Bharat@ 2047’ mission. Making a presentation at the meeting, Patel said the road map would be built on two “pillars” of “earning well and living well”, aiming to “enhance people’s quality of life and bring economic prosperity”.

Patel said at the meeting that Gujarat, despite representing only 5 per cent of the country’s population, contributed 8.3 percent to the country’s GDP in 2022-23.
Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma also presented a roadmap for ‘Developed Rajasthan @2047’. In order to realise this, the state government has taken 10 resolutions in its Budget 2024-25 to help make it a USD 350 billion economy in the next five years.

CM Pramod Sawant said Goa has become a tourist hub for international festivals and events like the Carnival of Goa, Sunburn Festival, Shigmotsav, International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and an International Purple Festival, and made its impact across the globe as the “most preferred international tourist destination”.

Asserting that the “rule of law” is a pre-condition for good governance in Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi Adityanath, said his state follows a zero-tolerance policy towards crime. This, coupled with its ease of doing business and investment-friendly policies, has led to the state becoming the “dream destination” for investment, he said.