Prioritise locals in rural development works, Uttarakhand CM Dhami instructs officials

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], July 7 : Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday instructed officials to prioritise locals in all the developmental works being done in villages. During the review meeting of the Rural Development Department CM asked officials to make proper arrangements for the marketing of local products of Uttarakhand.

CM Dhami was having a review meeting of the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department in connection with achieving the goals of Strong Uttarakhand @ 25 on Thursday at the Secretariat.

"Whatever developmental works are being done in the villages, priority should be given to the local people. Funds should be arranged for the schemes which are facing fund crunches."

"Besides promoting the local products of Uttarakhand, better arrangements should be made for marketing of the products, proper arrangements should also be made for online marketing for the products of Uttarakhand which are in high demand," CM said further.

Chief Minister instructed the officials that the schemes under which the central and state shares are in the ratio of 90 and 10 respectively, after completing the utilization certificate and other necessary procedures, there should be no unnecessary delay in centrally sponsored schemes at the state government level.

While reviewing the works of Panchayati Raj Department, the Chief Minister directed the officers to speed up the process of making all village panchayats Open Defecation Free (ODF) and solar lights should be promoted in villages. Work should be done expeditiously in the direction of computerization in gram panchayats, said an official statement.

It was informed in the meeting that the financial progress in MNREGA, Deendayal Antyodaya- National Rural Livelihood Mission and Rural Business Incubator was 44, 59 and 42 per cent higher than last year.

In order to double the economy through rural development, work is being done on convergence of various line departments under MNREGA. A target has been set to make 1.25 lakh Lakhpati Didi by 2025. So far, 40 thousand lakhpati didis have been made in the state, read the official statement.