In an attempt to put the Kalaburagi Vision 2050 programme on track, Minister for Mines and Geology and Kalaburagi district in-charge Murugesh Nirani on Monday held a meeting in virtual mode with the Deputy Commissioner, senior officials, subject experts and former bureaucrats.
As the meeting began, the Minister told the participants that Kalaburagi Vision 2050 is a programme aimed at ushering in overall development in the district for the next 30 years to ensure that the district gets rid of the backward tag and urged experts and former bureaucrats to share their ideas and views on the endeavour.
Additional Chief Secretary (retd.) V. Balasubramanian, who was invited to the meeting, made several suggestions to lift the district from backwardness. He said that the government should give thrust to sericulture and other crops to help farmers boost the rural economy. He urged the Minister to send the Sericulture Department chief to Kalaburagi and assess the condition for mulberry cultivation and cocoon production.
“Kalaburagi is in the 30th position in economic indicators, including per capita income, agriculture and industries, in the State. We need to bring the district close to the State average and for that, we need to attract investments, encourage sericulture, concentrate on commercial crops and set up auxiliary units of major factories and industries functioning in the district,” Mr. Balasubramanian suggested.
On the health sector, Mr. Balasubramanian felt that malnutrition among children is the main cause for the backwardness of the district and asked the Minister and the district administration to focus on providing more nutrition instead of energy food under the midday meal scheme in schools.
“For effective implementation, there should be a permanent monitoring committee with a full-fledged office to oversee the implementation of Vision 2050,” he said.
Stressing on the need to impart skill-based education among students, Additional Chief Secretary (Planning) Shalini Rajneesh, who was a special invitee, said that students should be exposed to skill development in all institutions, universities and colleges with aid from the Union government so as to prepare the workforce to meet the modern world challenges.
Briefing the virtual meeting, Deputy Commissioner Vijaya Jyothsna said that preliminary meetings were already held with senior officials on Kalaburagi Vision 2050 and sector-wise committees and sub-committees have been been formed.
In the post-lunch session, people’s representatives from the district Umesh Jadhav, Priyank Kharge, Shashil Namoshi and others participated in the meeting and gave their suggestions.
The Minister said that a similar Vision 2050 programme will be extended to the entire Kalyana Karnataka region for overall development.
