IT Correspondent
Guwahati, Sept 27:
The widely publicized three-day Chintan Shivir held at Kaziranga, where Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, State cabinet ministers, senior bureaucrats, functionaries from the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council were participants for deliberation and discussions, came to an end on 26 September. CM Sarma, while addressing the concluding day of Chintan Shivir, declared that the government would shed its conventional role of a regulator and perform as a facilitator to help different stakeholders to bring about a paradigm shift in development of the State.
Sarma said that the Assam government is committed to work as a facilitator to assist all stakeholders to unleash their energies for the development of the state in a time bound manner. He said that the government organized the three day Chintan Shivir to deliberate on action points where the government can work for the targeted goal in a stipulated time frame to enable the people of the state to reap rich dividends of governance.
He said that as an outcome of the Chintan Shivir, all departments would prepare certain action points indicating resources to be required to implement the points. The action points would subsequently be submitted to the government for perusal and necessary approval. After the government receives the action points from all the departments, the points would be uploaded on the government website for public viewing. Further, based on the action points, the government will take steps for their implementation in a time bound manner by 2026.
Sarma directed the departments to prepare action points highlighting their vision for Assam for 2026. After preparing the action points the departments should share them with every employee of the departments to build a strong belongingness so that everybody works together to reach the target by 2026. He also called for inter-departmental coordination and the need for looking at the government as an entity and not the department in isolation.
Spiritual Guru Ravishankar also graced the camp on its second day. On the sidelines of the camp, Sarma held a talk to a delegation of the PM’s ECI led by its chairman Bibek Debroy. Besides presenting Assam, its potentials and resources that can guide the development narrative of the State, he also put forward the perennial problems which sometimes stand in the way for the expeditious growth of Assam.
Earlier in a move to draw a roadmap for holistic development of Assam and to create a blueprint for expediting its growth, Sarma along with spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev inaugurated the camp on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Sarma stated that Assam was once a very flourishing State and its GDP growth was more than the national average.
The per capita income of Assam was also more than the national average. Though the State is contributing greatly to growth of the nation in the last 75 years, the growth has not been as encouraging as it should have been. Referring to the devastation caused by the earthquake and subsequent floods Sarma asserted that these had a negative impact on the common psychology of the people.
However, making a turnaround, the present government in Dispur with the able guidance of the Union government has unleashed a series of activities which have given a new momentum to the development of Assam. The government has already ventured into a journey to steer the State to a robust growth trajectory, Sarma stated adding that the government is encouraging a vision which has emerged from that sense of responsibility. Sadhguru, while addressing the congregation at Chintan Shivir, emphasized on the initiative to save the soil. A memorandum of understanding was signed on the Save Soil Movement with Isha Foundation through which the government would take actions on sustainable use of soil for agricultural practices.
Sarma also unveiled three rhino statues at Mihimukh of Kaziranga National Park along with Sadhguru, which have been created using the ashes collected from burning rhino horns. It may be noted that the State government created history when a stockpile of 2479 rhino horns were consigned to flames on 22 September last year sending a strong message to the poachers and illegal horn traders that rhino horns possess no medicinal value.
