The dark clouds that had hovered around the Assam skies for a better part of July were dispelled by the Sun shining through on the State when UNESCO announced that the Moidams of Chariadeo will henceforth be a heritage of the world. This landmark announcement is a huge thing for Assam and for the people of India. I have no words to express my gratitude, first and foremost to our honourable Prime Minister who had full faith that this nomination by him, at the expense of other options, was indeed a winning entry. Since a country is allowed to nominate just one site under the World Heritage List, it was a huge leap of faith. Over the years that I have seen the Prime Minister in action, his distinct vision can see through the haze that surrounds common mortal like us. I think the day that the Prime Minister reposed faith in these Moidams, I was pretty sure that we will see this day in our lives. Yes, a lot of behind the scene efforts of my predecessor, nominated experts, and civil society were also responsible for what is arguably our biggest collective achievement. When I grew up, I often used to wonder about the inherent geometrical and architectural beauty of a Moidam. It is an ode to the Ahoms that these burial-mounds have withstood the ravages of time to secure for themselves another piece of history.
In the same month, we have also received accolades for the way we conducted the administration of the education system in the State. First, not only did the Central Government recognised Shiksha Setu Axom app for its technological and administrative efficiency by bestowing it with the E-Governance Award. Second, our adoption of Samarth Portal for admission into colleges was so efficient that even education ministers from Bihar and Goa came to see it in action. In both these app-based platforms, what is of significance is the use of artificial intelligence which has brought in an additional degree of efficiency by cutting down on the probability of human error. I am of the opinion that henceforth we must use technologies like AI to drive home effective governance where necessary. I also appeal to students that they must make effective use of technological tools at their disposal to enhance their skill sets. In fact, by using the Samarth portal what we did was to disburse in quick time the money that we owed to educational institutions on account of admission fee waiver under our ambitious Pragyan Bharati scheme. This year, we increased the income limit under the scheme to ₹4 lakh from the previous year’s ₹2 lakh. The results are there for us to see. The number of enrolments have gone up significantly. More importantly, enrolment of female students has also gone up. This means the Gross Enrolment Ratio will certainly inch up in subsequent years. This scheme combined with the Nijut Moina scheme, which we announced in June, will act as a booster dose for female empowerment in Assam. Cohesion in policy action brings efficiency in governance. We are proud of the fact that we are using available opportunities through policy intervention to achieve the desired results. However, I do realise that there are grey areas where our higher education system deserves attention, and as we go forward, it would be the endeavour of our Government to address those deficiencies.
Another credible achievement of our Government in July was the forward movement on many indices of the SDG Report published annually by the policy think tank of the Government — Niti Aayog.
Assam was the first State in the country to adopt SDGs (on UN standard) as an agenda of the State Government. We had scored 49 in 2018, when the first index was announced. However, much water has flown down in the Brahmaputra since then. Today, Assam is among the 10 fastest moving States in the country. The State is a front runner State now and our latest score is 65, a very impressive improvement from our score in 2018. We have been able to build a template around governance and overall development. I can promise you through this column today that in the next couple of years, you will find us surpassing our national score in SDG. One significant area of personal satisfaction has been the way we have tackled poverty. By reducing the poverty level from a score of 36 and bringing it to 19 means we have managed to halve the number of poor people living in the State. Schemes like Orunodoi deserve a lot of credit for this. This coupled with our pro-women and gender-equality policies will certainly fetch dividends in the days to come. Generally, there is a time lag between policy implementation and delivery of its result. As we move forward, we will be able to see clear results of the seeds planted based on our vision for the all-round development of our people.
