Aspirational District Programme leveraged competitive federalism: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Saturday that the Aspirational District Programme leveraged competitive and cooperative federalism, driven by a Team India spirit.

"The efforts have resulted in these districts performing remarkably better in every parameter, a fact which has been recognised independently by global experts as well," Kant said while giving an overview of the progress and implementation of the Aspirational District Programme.

The NITI Aayog presentation, in the virtual programme, came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to District Magistrates from across India. Several Chief Ministers, district magistrates of hundreds of districts and officials from a number of central ministries and state governments joined the programme.

The presentation also included the best practises like smart classroom initiative from Banka, Bihar; Mission Aparajita to prevent child marriages in Koraput, Odisha etc. were replicated by other districts as well, a release from the Prime Minister's office said.

Analysis of performance of districts vis-a-vis stability of tenure of key officials of the district was also presented.

Secretary, Rural Development, N.N. Sinha gave a presentation on a mission to uplift 142 selected districts, on the lines of the focussed work done in the aspirational districts.

"Centre and state will work together to uplift these identified districts to address the pockets of under-development," he said.

As many as 15 sectors corresponding to 15 ministries and departments were identified. In the sectors, key performance indicators (KPIs) were identified. The aim of the government is to ensure that the KPIs in the selected districts surpass the state average in the next one year and that they come at par with national average in two years.

Each concerned Ministry / Department has identified its set of KPIs, on the basis of which, districts were selected. The initiative is aimed at achieving saturation of various schemes by various departments in the districts in mission mode, in convergence with all stakeholders.

Secretaries of various Ministries and Departments presented an overview of an action plan about how their ministries will go about in achieving these targets.

These presentations were held behind the virtually only for the designated attendees while Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address after these presentations was beamed live on social media platforms.

The Prime Minister said: "When the aspirations of others become your aspirations, when fulfilling the dreams of others becomes the measure of your success, then that path of duty creates history. Today we are seeing this history being made in the aspirational districts of the country."