Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started the two day Legislators Conference here on Saturday by digitally inaugurating it. The Conference with theme “We For Development” is aimed at fully integrating legislators with various developmental and social welfare schemes so that these are implemented properly.
The Conference is being held under the aegis of Indian Parliamentary Group.
Speaking on the occasion, Modi said several districts of the country were lagging behind in development. This is so not due to paucity of funds or budget outlays but due to lack of good governance, coordination and effective implementation of policies and programmes. In every State there are a few districts where development parameters are strong and asked the delegates attending the conference to learn from them and work on weaker districts.
In this connection, he stressed on the need to ensure public participation. The results have been good and results transformative wherever officials have worked in close proximity with people and involved them in the development process, he added.
He further said that on the basis of 48 parameters of development, 115 aspirational districts have been identified by the NITI Aayog across the country that required a special approach to facilitate their holistic development. Since there is an element of negativity involved in the usage of the term ‘backward districts’, he said that such districts have been described as ‘aspirational districts’. He urged all legislators to work together to make them ‘forward districts’.
He stressed that competitive and co-operative federalism is very good for the country, wherein the States and districts compete among each other to excel in development. He felt that India has manpower, skills and resources and the need of the hour is to work in a mission mode to bring about positive change.
Earlier, welcoming the delegates Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan said that the inspiration for organizing this unique Conference was drawn from the developmental vision of Prime Minister Modi. She said that though the world community had set the year 2030 for attaining the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet the legislators should endeavour to realize the Prime Minister’s vision of achieving these targets in the 75th year of India’s independence in 2022 only to make India a strong and developed nation.
She recalled that Parliament had already discussed the issue of SDGs on four different occasions. As such, it was high time that the State Legislatures also took a lead is proactively deliberating on this important matter for all round development. She observed that several policies and programmes have been adopted by the Governments at the Centre and State and MPs and MLAs together have to work to oversee their implementation, monitoring and execution. Mahajan hoped that the Conference would provide an opportunity to the legislators to have a direct dialogue with Ministers and Members of Parliament to identify the gaps in implementation strategies.
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