The Hindu : Other States / Madhya Pradesh News : `Ensure urban amenities in rural areas'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

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`Ensure urban amenities in rural areas'

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, AUG 10. The President, A.P.J Abdul Kalam, today said that Madhya Pradesh had the capacity and the resources to emerge as a prosperous and front-ranking State and emphasised that the country's development was directly linked to the development of the State.

The President made this assertion while inaugurating a three-day national seminar on "Alternative Strategy for Sustainable Development" here. The Governor, Balram Jakhar, chaired the session and the Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, was present as a special guest.

Presenting a model for development, Dr. Kalam underlined the importance of rural development and said urban amenities should be provided to the rural areas to ensure the prosperity of villages. He said that 700 million people live in 600,000 villages across the country. "While it is essential to link these villages together, it is also necessary to expand the economic opportunities in these areas," the President said, adding that the rural-urban divide would have to be bridged and more employment opportunities created. Dr. Kalam said the demands of the modern society could be met by proper exploitation of the vast natural resources and pointed out that 50 per cent of the country's population comprises the youth who wanted to improve the quality of life and attain higher standards of living. He stressed that for better employment avenues, efforts should be made to add value to agricultural produce.

The President said that integrated methods that would bring prosperity to rural India were physical connectivity of the village clusters through quality roads and transport; electronic connectivity through telecommunication with high bandwidth fibre optic cables reaching the rural areas and broadband wireless; and knowledge connectivity through education, skill training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. Dr. Kalam said the engines for growth would be the launch of five national Missions -- water, energy, education and skills, infrastructure and employment generation. These would enable achievement of 10 per cent GDP growth rate per year that has to be sustained for a minimum period of 10 years. Speaking on the Energy mission, he said the country had the potential of producing 100,000 MW whereas by 2020 it will need 300,000 MW of electricity to meet its development goals.

The demand for extra power will have to be met through nuclear, hydroelectric and other advanced power generation technologies, he said. The Governor, Balram Jakhar, spoke of the vast potential for development due to the huge availability of natural resources. He said there should be no confrontation on the issue of development and all should cooperate and help in fulfilling the Chief Minister, Uma Bharti's dreams.

Ms. Bharti said her Government was fully committed to maximum utilisation of the State's resources.

Also present at the inaugural session were former Union Ministers Arun Shourie and Murli Manohar Joshi.

Soon after arriving here this morning, the President visited a government school at Intkheri where the Chief Minister herself played the role of interpreter to ensure communication between Dr. Kalam and the students.

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`Ensure urban amenities in rural areas'