The first day of the 48th Conference of Governors/Lt Governors
at Rashtrapati Bhavan concluded today (October 12, 2017) with presentations and
a discussion on the themes of ‘Higher education in States’ and ‘Skill
Development and entrepreneurship – Making Youth Employable’. The Minister
of HRD, Shri Prakash Javadekar, and Minister of Skill Development and
entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, made presentations covering the
vision and roadmap for addressing the issues on the agenda. Governors
also gave their feedback and views, and cited experiences from their
States.
The
agenda of the Conference has been shaped by the over-arching national mission
to achieve ‘New India-2022’. India will complete 75 years of Independence in
2022. The Union Government has developed a vision for ‘New India-2022’ that will
require initiatives in education and skill building, enhancing educational,
health and sanitation capacities of citizens, and upgrading Infrastructure.
Also envisaged is better access to and quality of public services.
Twenty-seven
Governors and three Lt. Governors of States and Union Territories are
participating in the Conference. The Administrators of the UTs of Dadra and
Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu as well as of Lakshadweep are special
invitees. The Vice-President, the Prime Minister, Minister for Home Affairs and
other Union Ministers also participated in the Conference today.
Earlier
in the day, in his opening remarks at the Conference, President Ram Nath Kovind
said that it is essential to link youth with the process of nation building.
Special attention needs to be paid to higher education and skill development at
the level of States. Addressing the participants, the President eMphasised the
need to trust citizens. He gave the examples of self-attestation of documents
by individuals and the easier mechanism for obtaining a passport that is in
place now, urging States to take forward this philosophy of trusting the
citizen.
The
President said that in the context of development of each part of the country,
it was crucial to have a special focus on tribal and indigenous communities in
the Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The President said the dream
of a developed India will be realised only when every State develops.
Following
the President, the Doyen of Governors or the senior most Governor at the
Conference, Shri E.S.L. Narasimhan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,
spoke on the gamut of developmental challenges, ranging from energy and technology
to health and sustainable development.
The
first session was addressed by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Referring
to the mission of achieving New India by 2022, the Prime Minister emphasised
that this can be achieved only with widespread
popular participation. He said that it is important to encourage
Innovation not just in terms of new Technology but also finding solutions to
long-standing problems. He encouraged Governors to
interact at length with students and teachers. He said universities should be centres
of innovation. He suggested Governors could encourage their States and
especially the youth and the university network to adopt one sport (other than
cricket) in which the State had potential and attempt to build excellence in it.
A
presentation was made by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog on the
elements of New India-2022. He said that the focus would be on a clean, healthy
and safe India, with new benchmarks of governance, greater transparency and higher
accountability.
In
the pre-lunch session, deliberations were held in two breakaway groups. The
first group, deliberating on the topic ‘Infrastructure for New India-2022’, had
the following participants:-
Governors of
States
·
Shri E.S.L. Narasimhan, Governor of
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
·
Shri S. C. Jamir, Governor of Odisha
·
Dr. K. K. Paul, Governor of Uttarakhand
·
Shri Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil, Governor
of Sikkim
·
Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi, Governor of
West Bengal
·
Shri Balramji Dass Tandon, Governor of
Chhattisgarh
·
Shri Kalyan Singh, Governor of Rajasthan
·
Shri Tathagata Roy, Governor of Tripura
·
Dr. Najma A. Heptulla, Governor of
Manipur
·
Shri Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of
Tamil Nadu
·
Shri V. P. Singh Badnore, Governor of
Punjab and Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh
·
Shri Satya Pal Malik, Governor of Bihar
·
Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam
Union Ministers
·
Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home
Affairs
·
Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of
Road Transport and Highways; Minister of Shipping; Minister of Water Resources,
River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
·
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways
and Minister of Coal
·
Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minster of State
(Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region;
Minster of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension; Minister of State in the
Department of Atomic Energy; and Minster or State in the Department of Space
·
Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of
State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
NITI
Aayog
·
Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI
Aayog
Lt.
Governors of Union Territories
·
Shri Anil Baijal, Lt. Governor of Delhi
·
Admiral (Retd.) Devendra Kumar Joshi,
PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM, Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Administrator
of Union Territory (Special invitee)
·
Shri Praful Patel, Administrator of
Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu
The
second group, deliberating on the subject ‘Public Services for New India-2022’,
comprised:-
Governors
of States
·
Shri N. N. Vohra, Governor of Jammu
& Kashmir
·
Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhay Sharma,
Governor of Mizoram
·
Shri Om Prakash Kohli, Governor of
Gujarat with additional charge of Madhya Pradesh
·
Shri Padmanabha Balakrishna Achary,
Governor of Nagaland
·
Shri Ram Naik, Governor of Uttar Pradesh
·
Shri Kaptan Singh Solanki, Governor of
Haryana
·
Shri Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao,
Governor of Maharashtra
·
Smt. Mridula Sinha, Governor of Goa
·
Shri Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, Governor of
Karnataka
·
Shri Justice (Retd.) Palanisamy
Sathasivam, Governor of Kerala
·
Smt. Droupadi Murmu, Governor of
Jharkhand
·
Acharya Devvrat, Governor of Himachal
Pradesh
·
Brig. (Dr.) B.D. Mishra (Retd.),
Governor of Arunachal Pradesh
·
Shri Ganga Prasad, Governor of Meghalaya
Union Ministers
·
Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home
Affairs
·
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of
Law & Justice and Minister of electronic and Information Technology
·
Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda, Minister of
Health and Family Welfare
·
Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of
agriculture and farmers Welfare
·
Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of
Human Resource Development
·
Shri Dharmndra Pradhan, Minister of
Petroleum & Natural gas and Minister of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship
NITI Aayog
·
Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
Lt. Governors of
Union Territories
·
Dr. Kiran Bedi, Lt. Governor of
Puducherry
Administrator of
Union Territory (Special invitee)
·
Shri Farooq Khan, Administrator of Union
Territories of Lakshadweep
Tomorrow
(October 13, 2017), in the third session of the Conference, Governors will make
short interventions on issues pertaining to their respective States/Union
Territories. In the concluding session, a brief report on the deliberations
will be presented by the respective conveners.
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