Niti Aayog team to visit UP to review progress on key development parameters

NEW DELHI: With Modi dispensation keen on bringing Uttar Pradesh back on the development track, a high-level team of Niti Aayog is slated to visit the state on November 9 to review the progress made on health, education and nutrition fronts highlighted in the roadmap charted out by a joint team.

The delegation, likely to be headed by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, will have members and top most officials of the government’s premier think tank, including CEO

Amitabh Kant

, who will meet UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his key officials.

The agenda of the meeting is to discuss progress made by the state to meet the targets on key economic and social indicators highlighted in the roadmap charted out for boosting economy and transforming the face of UP.

With the realisation at the top that UP must develop for India to progress, a delegation of the Aayog, including then vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya visited the state in May.

A joint committee comprising officials from the state and Niti Aayog was set up which had suggested a detailed roadmap for pushing economic transformation in the backward state.

Be it the number of poor, health indicators, higher school dropouts or houses without electricity, UP lags way behind other states. The key concerns are education, health and nutrition as over one-fourth (53) of 201 districts where India fails on these fronts are located in UP alone.

The think tank, in its action plan for the Yogi government, is also pushing liberalisation of labour laws and changes in land acquisition act in line with Gujarat and Tamil Nadu to help Uttar Pradesh boost its economy.

The Yogi government has a herculean task as the country's most populous state has slipped on most social and economic parameters due to decades of unstable governments and rule by regional outfits.

Since taking over as chief minister in March after BJP's landslide victory in the state, Yogi Adityanath has been pushing state bureaucracy to accelerate the development initiatives and has indicated about state’s readiness to take up ‘bold’ and 'politically sensitive' reforms to get rid of the tag of 'laggard' attached to the UP.

The state has to meet an uphill task as it seeks to adhere to the deadlines imposed by the Aayog for education, health and rural development among eight parameters identified in the action plan.