Punjab guv bats for border blocks’ inclusion in NITI Aayog’s Aspirational Districts Programme

The Punjab governor emphasised that these blocks required a robust framework to ensure they were not left behind in the nation’s developmental journey, according to an official release

Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Friday formally suggested the inclusion of the state’s border blocks under NITI Aayog’s Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks Programmes.

Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria raised the demand during the Sampooranta Abhiyaan Samman Samaroh at Lok Bhawan, Chandigarh. (HT File)

The governor emphasised that these blocks required a robust framework to ensure they were not left behind in the nation’s developmental journey, according to an official release.

Presiding over the “Sampooranta Abhiyaan Samman Samaroh” at Lok Bhawan here, organised to recognise the outstanding achievements of districts and blocks under the programmes, Kataria said the government can leverage targeted transformation and convergence-based action to fill the void left by previous funding structures by integrating these border area blocks into the aspirational framework. The governor lauded the collaborative governance that has turned development into a mass movement in Punjab.

He said these programmes represented a bold shift from incremental progress to targeted transformation and from isolated schemes to convergence-based action. He said true development was not measured by the progress of the fastest, but by the upliftment of the weakest.

In his keynote address, Rohit Kumar, additional secretary, Government of India and mission director of Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks Programmes at NITI Aayog, expressed satisfaction that within a short span, numerous districts and blocks across the country had not only surpassed national and state averages but also set new benchmarks.

She highlighted that Ferozepur and Moga’s good performance under the programme had made them eligible for performance-based incentive grants. She also urged NITI Aayog to include border blocks of the state under this programme.