Modi to Centre: Give similar importance to Asiatic lions like Tigers

2-4-2008

Modi to Centre: Give similar importance to Asiatic lions like Tigers

Express India

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Modi-to-Centre-Treat-Narmada-waters-as-a-national-project/291426/

New Delhi, April 01 Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged the Centre to treat the Narmada project as a national project. Modi also asked the Centre to evolve a strategy to protect the Asiatic lion and give similar importance to lions as was being given to tigers in the country.

At a meeting between the Gujarat government and the Planning Commission to finalise the annual plan for 2008-09 for the state, he expressed his concern on why the Narmada project, which was originally conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru, was continuously being ignored by the Centre.

At the meet where the annual plan for 2008-09 was pegged at Rs 21000 crore –representing a hike of over 31 per cent – as compared to the plan size of Rs 16000 crore for 2007-08, he also drew attention on the deterioration seen on the nutrition front as well as in the decline in the enrolment rate for higher education.

Modi said the decline in enrolment rate for higher education was partly on account of youth in the state opting to take up courses in skill development. He said Gujarat would make efforts to improve the human development index through investments in human capital as well as through focused attention in the unorganised sector.

On his part, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, that the state's growth rate at 10.4 per cent during the Xth Plan period was far higher than the national average and given the ongoing trend, the target to clock 11 per cent growth would be achieved.

Outlining the focus areas for Gujarat, Modi told Ahluwalia that the state would launch specific programmes for the deprived sections of the society in order to make the growth more inclusive. He said that a new pension scheme would also be introduced by the state for which a consolidated sinking fund has already been created to take care of future liabilities.

As part of the Centre's National Solar Mission, Modi said that the state government was planning to make Gandhinagar a solar city, and to this effect a fund of Rs 100 crore has already been provided.