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10 'aspirational districts' given an IAS officer each as 'mentor'

Bhubaneswar: The state government has nominated 10 IAS officers as secretaries-in-charge of 10 aspirational districts. The officers will supervise different priority sectors in these districts under the Centre’s flagship aspirational districts programme.

Each secretary will oversee one district.

P K Mohapatra, agriculture production commissioner, will look after Dhenkanal, while Anu Garg, secretary of women and child development and Mission Shakti department, will supervise Rayagada.

Similarly, agriculture and farmers empowerment secretary Sourabh Garg will take care of Koraput district, panchayati raj and drinking water secretary D R K Singh for Kalahandi, home secretary Sanjeev Chopra for Kandhamal, industries secretary Hemanta Sharma for Nabarangpur, higher education secretary Saswat Mishra for Nuapada, skill development and technical education secretary S K Singh for Gajapati, health secretary Pramod Meherda for Balangir and cooperation secretary V V Yadav for Malkangiri.

According to a government notification published by the planning and convergence department on Friday, the secretaries will closely follow up on the 49 indicators across five sectors — health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill upgradation and basic infrastructure like irrigation, rural electrification, potable drinking water and access to toilets in these districts.

The Centre has launched the Transformation of Aspirational Districts programme to quickly and effectively transform these districts and raise the standards of living of its people. This programme will focus on the strength of each district, measure progress and rank districts.

In the latest evaluation of aspirational districts by the Niti Aayog, Balangir and Dhenkanal districts have got the no.1 spot in the country under basic infrastructure and financial inclusion category respectively. Overall, Balangir has secured the no.2 spot while two other districts Kandhamal and Gajapati are among the top 10 districts in the composite index for July this year.

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