Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that the state government will assist legislators in the development of ‘Char areas’ across the state.
Addressing the House during the ongoing budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Sarma spoke on the need for development in char areas of Assam. He asked legislators in these areas to take charge and bring up their issues and the government will assist in the matter.
CM Sarma said, “The government will help MLAs if they take initiative in this matter. We need to bring out the new generations. I ask them to move forward through various departments rather than being confined to directorates.”
He said, “We have to work towards ending the tendency to stay away from modernity. I ask all MLAs to work tirelessly to bring development to char areas. Take the help of schemes from every state government department.”
Meanwhile, the Assam CM then addressed MLAs especially those in areas containing minorities and went on to hand the responsibility of bringing progress to char regions of the state to cabinet minister Chandra Mohan Patowary who holds the portfolio of Environment and Forests, Act East Policy Affairs and Welfare of Minorities Department in the Assam government.
CM Sarma also emphasized on using funds from the Public Works Department (PWD) for developmental works in these areas.
Earlier during the ongoing session of the Assam assembly on March 15, CM Sarma had claimed that the state will surpass Punjab in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in three years’ time.
CM Sarma said that Assam is maintaining a debt-to-GDP ratio of 23 per cent all the while witnessing a solid economic growth.
The Assam CM was addressing the House during the ongoing budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly. Apart from this, he also spoke on several other issues.
“The RBI has asked us to take a loan amount of Rs 22,000 crore but we have said that we can manage it with Rs 19,000 crore,” the CM added.
He then remarked that if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in the state was given three years of time, then Assam will be able to surpass the GDP of Punjab.
“In Indian ranking, in terms of GDP Assam stands at 17 per cent and Punjab is at 16 per cent and we have overtaken Chattisgarh and Chandigarh and now we are chasing Punjab,” he said.
CM Sarma added that Punjab is at around Rs 6,80,000 crore while Assam will be around the Rs 5,50,000 crore mark within three years and will overtake Punjab.
The GDP of Assam is set to touch the Rs 4,93,000 crore mark and the government has projected that for the year 2022-23, the GDP will be near Rs 5,50,000 crore.
CM Sarma said that for the financial year 2021-22, the per capita growth of Assam stood at 18.26 per cent, while that of entire India stood at 14.24 per cent.
While speaking about the per capita income, the Assam CM mentioned that in the last year, India’s per capital income was 14 per cent while it was 17 per cent for Assam.
He also stressed that till last year, Assam was dependent on the Central funds for paying salaries of state government employees, however, now the government is self-reliant in that matter and pays out the salaries for all 12 months on the first day of every month.
The CM also spoke about Dearness Allowances, saying that the allowance of the Centre is at par with the state government, highlighting that West Bengal is still behind in those terms.
