NEW DELHI: Expertise lies with the states appear to have been the message of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he sought to enlist the support of the state governments to spur the economic growth in the country.
Modi told a conclave of chief secretaries at a meeting hosted by the NITI Aayog on the theme “States as drivers for transforming India” that a team of young officials should be constituted, which could visit each state to find solutions to problems being faced by them. “A team of young officers from across states should now deliberate and learn from best practices by visiting each state. This will help in adoption of best practices across states,” said Modi in a first of its kind address to all the top officials of the states at one place.
Fresh from the G-20 summit, Prime Minister sought to put the expectations before the chief secretaries, saying that the “world has a lot of expectation from India” and to meet them the states should address the issue of ease of doing business. Incidentally, NITI Aayog is being projected as the NDA government’s face for co-operative federalism, with the think-tank panel in the recent times reaching out to a number of states to push for key reforms which may usher in faster socio-economic development.
Modi sought to bridge the gap between the political leadership and bureaucracy while seeking free flow of ideas from the officials for the growth of the country. “The officers should adopt positive attitude. The elected political leadership will always be receptive to new, positive ideas irrespective of ideology,” noted the Prime Minister.
Chief Secretaries also addressed the brain-storming session during which they shared their success stories in specific areas. Modi advised that the success models of small states and union territories could be replicated in a district of a large state, while noting that the officers should be mindful of “competitive cooperative federalism”. Noting that states have untapped growth potential, Modi exhorted the officials to embark on improving ease of doing business to attract greater investments in the states.