The Chhattisgarh government foresees a one per cent rise next year in the state’s agriculture growth, which is currently showing five per cent, Chief Minister Raman Singh said on Wednesday.
“While the national agriculture growth rate is 2.5 per cent, Chhattisgarh has registered more than five per cent. This will further increase with an action plan that we have prepared,” he told at a function to mark the launch of the Raipur edition of Business Standard (Hindi).
Raipur is the eight edition of the newspaper — after Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Bhopal and Chandigarh. The function also saw a brainstorming session between representatives of the state government, the corporate world and academia on ways to take the state’s developmental path ahead.
The chief minister said an integrated development plan would help the state achieve the projected six per cent growth target in agriculture. It was with a view to promoting farming that the government was providing farm loans at a nominal three per cent interest, he pointed out, adding that the government was also giving emphasis on developing allied activities. The landlocked state was using “every bit of our plot” in different ways — agriculture, mining and forest produce, among others.
Singh added Chhattisgarh was investing in power sector with its own resources. The state, by the end of the current financial year, would add 1,500 Mw power to its installed capacity. “The electricity generated will not be for just the industry, but for the lowest stratum of society.”
Chief Secretary P Joy Oommen said the state produces five million tonnes of paddy every year, though its annual requirement was not more than two million tonnes, implying there was no cause to worry about diverting farmlands for industrial purposes. At 1,560 Kw, the state’s per capita power consumption was better than all others, except Gujarat (1,604 Kw), he added.
Touching upon the progress made by the state in the last 10 years, Oommen said census data suggested the influx of people to Chhattisgarh in search of jobs and business prospects, unlike in the past when people from the state went elsewhere to earn a living. Also, the pace of urbanisation in the state was better than in most others, reflecting the progress in recent years.
The state will, by this November, move to the new capital, Naya Raipur, he added.
