E-Paper
PM Modi to spell out roadmap to develop 115 backward districts
The government has appointed 115 senior Central government officials as “Prabhari Officers” for coordinating the efforts of the Centre and the states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday evening hold discussions with officials who have been put in charge of the country’s 115 most backward districts to set the agenda for developing these areas by 2022, officials of the government think tank NITI Aayog said.
The government has appointed 115 senior Central government officials as “Prabhari Officers” for coordinating the efforts of the Centre and the states, while the district magistrates have been asked to improve the socio-economic indices of these states.
“Most of the officers at the Centre are from the state cadres to which the district they will oversee belongs. This provides for a long term engagement,” an official said. “We have called them aspirational districts rather than backward or poor. The idea is to underline the seriousness in transforming these in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of New India by 2022,” he added.
The Aayog identified 30 most backward districts, while the ministries were asked to come up with a pool of another 50 districts on which they would focus. The government added to the list 35 districts hit by Maoists. The districts were chosen on the basis of data from the socio-economic caste census deprivation, nutrition and health indices, education, access to drinking water, toilets and electrification.
