Bihar’s Khagaria secures top spot in NITI Aayog rankings, set to get more funds
The top ranking now makes Khagaria district in Bihar entitled to receive additional grant of ₹10 crore, the NITI Aayog has said
PATNA: Bihar’s Khagaria district secured the top rank in terms of overall performance for the month of November last year, according to the NITI Aayog’s rankings for a nationwide aspirational programme for districts.
NITI Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant conveyed the news to Bihar chief secretary Amit Subhani on Wednesday. The top ranking now makes Khagaria district entitled to receive additional grant of ₹10 crore, the NITI Aayog said in its letter to Subhani.
It is a significant development for Khagaria since it is one of the most backward districts of the state, which routinely takes a huge battering from floods every year.
Khagaria’s district magistrate Alok Ranjan Ghosh said that its top-rank listing was a reflection of the improvement it has shown on a number of key parameters. “It has got the top rank overall as well as on the health indicators. There are five parameters out of which Khagaria showed maximum improvement from its previous position in two. In the rest three, it ranked third or fourth. There is still a long way to go and we want our team to maintain the same tempo. For serious illnesses, people still go to Bhagalpur, Begusarai or Patna. We hope one day Khagaria will be able to cater to its people’s needs within the district,” the DM said.
Ghosh said that the district had been primarily focusing on health and education. “Health is one area where improvement can show in a short span of time, name in institutional delivery, anaemia control programme, immunisation, functioning of primary health centres, Covid-19 care and so on... The district has tried to make small but determined efforts to improve. The district was ranked No.1 twice in the past also and we got a funding of ₹13 crore... Now another ₹10 crore means we can have more schemes,” he said.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, the Aspirational Districts Programme aims to transform and uplift 112 most underdeveloped districts, including 13 from Bihar, from across the country.
