Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has expressed confidence for the State to grow at about 8-9 per cent for the coming years, driven by infrastructure development, having maintained a similar pace of growth for the past five years.

“For the past five years, we have maintained a GSDP growth rate at around 8.5 to 9 per cent. We expect to maintain the same for the coming years as we focus on improving infrastructure like rail, road and telecom connectivity,” Singh said in a media interaction on Friday.

As a road map to achieve the targeted growth rate, the State Government is focusing on developing a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to execute infrastructure projects. The State, having about 48-50 per cent families under Below Poverty Line (BPL), has limited resources to meet the requirement of infrastructure like road connectivity, railway connectivity and irrigation, among others.

State demographics “We have almost half of the national average of such infrastructure. The State has 45 per cent forest cover, 32 per cent of the population is tribal and 48-50 per cent is of BPL families. So there can’t be a single model for this State,” said the Chief Minister, who was in town for the inauguration of a three-day Management Development Programme (MDP) at IIM-Ahmedabad for top bureaucrats from the State.

Top government officials ranging from chief secretary to commissioners of different departments will undergo a 3-day MDP at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to understand nuances of infrastructure development under the PPP model.

“Not just roads and railways, but we are increasing the focus on sectors like health, education, PDS among others,” he said.

Naxal impact Commenting on Naxal tension, Singh maintained that Naxalism has adversely affected the State’s GSDP.

“When I took over as CM, there were around 23,000 policemen in our force. We had to invest a huge amount in recruiting new force, which now stands at around 67,000 personnel.”

Creating infrastructure became a monumental task due to naxalism. “Education, health and connectivity will improve the naxal problem. In next 4-5 years, we expect things to improve much faster. Even amid violence, we have to keep working without being disappointed,” he added.

For faster development, Singh maintained that the PPP model would be best suitable, as budgetary route for development would take much longer for infrastructure development.

He also expressed confidence that Chhattisgarh will be among the top four States in the next five years due to its pro-industry and pro-people policies.

Singh and his team of officials met Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel besides visiting the smart city project at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) at Gandhinagar.

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