Namaskar!

Present in the programme with us are Hon’ble Chief Ministers of different states of the country, Lieutenant Governors, my colleagues in the Union Cabinet, all the ministers of the states, secretaries of various ministries, District Magistrates, Collectors, Commissioners, other dignitaries, and ladies and gentlemen,

Often in life, we ​​see that people work day and night for their aspirations and fulfill them to some extent. But when the aspirations of others become our own aspirations, when fulfilling the dreams of others becomes the measure of our success, then that path of the duty creates history. Today we are witnessing this history being made in the aspirational districts of the country. I remember, when this campaign was launched in 2018, I said that the opportunity to serve the people in the areas which have been deprived of development for decades, is a great privilege in itself. I am glad that today when the country is celebrating the Amrit Mahotsav of its independence, you are present here with many achievements of this campaign. I congratulate all of you on your success and wish you all the best for your new goals. I also congratulate the chief ministers and the states especially for deploying promising and very bright young officers in many districts. This is right strategy in itself. Similarly, vacancies were filled on a priority basis. I have seen that they have kept the tenure (of the officers) stable as well. That is, the chief ministers have ensured promising leadership and teams in aspirational districts. Today is Saturday, there is a holiday mood, yet all the hon’ble chief ministers joined us in this programme by taking out their time. It shows the importance of aspirational districts in the hearts of the chief ministers of the states. It is proof of their determination that they want to bring those who have been left behind at par with the state.

Friends,

We have seen that many districts in the country remained behind others even after 75 years of independence despite the hike in the budget, formulation of policies and economic development visible in statistics. Over time, these districts were tagged as backward districts. On the one hand, hundreds of districts of the country continued to progress, on the other hand, these backward districts kept on falling behind. These districts also used to downgrade the progress figures of the entire country. Overall, when the change is not visible, the districts which are doing well also get disappointed and hence the country paid special attention to hand-holding those districts which were left behind. Today aspirational districts are removing the barriers to the progress of the country. With your efforts, the aspirational districts are becoming an accelerator instead of being sluggish. Today these aspirational districts are showing better results in many parameters than the districts which were once considered to be making rapid progress. Many hon’ble chief ministers present here would also agree that their aspirational districts have done amazing work.

Friends,

Aspirational districts have expanded and redesigned our responsibilities in many ways in this campaign of development. The idea and the spirit of our constitution give it a substantial form. Its basis is the teamwork between the Centre, states and local administration. Its hallmark is the growing culture of cooperation in the federal structure. And most importantly, the more the people's participation is there, the more efficient the monitoring, the better the results!

Friends,

A direct and emotional connection between the administration and the public is very important for development in aspirational districts. In a way, there is a 'top to bottom' and 'bottom to top' flow of governance. And the important aspect of this campaign is technology and innovation! As we have just seen in the presentations the districts which are using technology and innovative ways in governance and delivery are performing better. Today, there are so many success stories of aspirational districts from different states of the country before us. Today I could speak to only five district officials. But hundreds of other officers who are sitting here have one or the other success story. We have the examples of Darang in Assam, Sheikhpura in Bihar and Bhadradri Kothagudem in Telangana. In no time, these districts have reduced malnutrition among children to a great extent. Assam's Goalpara and Manipur's Chandel districts in the Northeast have increased the vaccination of cattle from 20 percent to 85 percent in just four years. Districts like Jamui and Begusarai in Bihar, where even 30 percent of the population barely had a bucketful of drinking water a day, are now getting clean drinking water for 90 percent of the population. We can imagine a pleasant change in the lives of so many poor, women, children and elders. And I would say that these are not just figures. There are many lives associated with each figure. Behind these figures are many man-hours, manpower, tenacity and sweat of promising friends like you. I believe this change and these experiences are the capital of your entire life.

Friends,

Convergence is one of the major reasons why the country is getting success in the aspirational districts. Just now our official from Karnataka described how they came out of the silos. All the resources are the same, the government machinery is the same, the officials are the same but the results are different. When any district is seen as a unit and the work is done keeping the future of the district in mind, then the officers feel the enormity of their responsibilities. Officers also realize the importance of their role and feel a purpose in life. The officers and those associated with the administration also derive satisfaction when they see the results and changes in the lives of the people of their district. And this satisfaction is beyond imagination, beyond words. I have seen this myself. Before the advent of Corona, I had made a rule to talk openly with the people and officers of the aspirational districts when I went to any state. During my interactions with them, I found that those working in the aspirational districts had an altogether different sense of satisfaction. When a government effort becomes an eternal goal, when the government machinery becomes an eternal entity and there is team spirit and team culture, the outcomes are what we see in aspirational districts. The work style that develops while supporting each other, sharing best practices with each other, learning from each other and teaching each other is a huge asset of good governance.

Friends,

The work done in aspirational districts is also a subject of study for major universities of the world. There has been an increase of 4 to 5 times in Jan Dhan accounts in almost every aspirational district of the country in the last four years. Almost every family has got a toilet and electricity has reached every village. It’s not that electricity has reached the houses of the poor, it has also energized the people and the trust of these people in the system of the country has also grown.

Friends,

We have a lot to learn from these efforts. One district has to learn from the successes of another district and assess the challenges of the other. How the first trimester-registration of pregnant women increase from 37 percent to 97 percent within four years in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh? How did institutional delivery increase from 40-45 percent to 90 percent in Namsai in Arunachal, Mewat in Haryana and Dhalai in Tripura? How has the number of pregnant women receiving regular additional nutrition increased from 70 percent to 97 percent in Raichur, Karnataka? How the coverage of Common Service Centers at Gram Panchayat level increase from 67 percent to 97 percent in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh? Or in Sukma, Chhattisgarh, where less than 50 percent of children used to be vaccinated, now 90 percent vaccination is being done. In all these success stories, there are many new things to learn for the administration of the entire country, there are also many new lessons.

Friends,

You have seen that the people who live in the aspirational districts have so much yearning to move forward, how much aspiration there is. The people of these districts have spent a very long time of their life in deprivation, in many difficulties. For every little thing, they have to struggle. They have seen so much darkness (in their lives) that they are impatient to come out of this darkness. That's why those people are ready to take risks and whenever they get an opportunity, they take full advantage of it. We should understand and recognize the strength of the people who live in the aspirational districts. And I believe it also has a great impact on the projects in the aspirational districts. The people of these areas also come forward and work with you. The desire for development becomes the way to walk together. And when the people and the administration are determined, then how can anyone be left behind. The only way then is to move forward. And today the people of the aspirational districts are doing the same.

Friends,

In October last year, I completed 20 years serving the people as Chief Minister and Prime Minister. Even before that, I have seen and examined the work style of administration in different parts of the country very closely for decades. My experience is that the silos in the decision process and implementation result in terrible losses. And the aspirational districts have proved that there is optimum utilization of resources when silos in implementation are eliminated. When silos end, one plus one does not become two, but it becomes 11. This collective power is evident in the aspirational districts today. Our aspirational districts have proved that if we follow the basic principles of good governance, huge results can be achieved even with lesser resources. And the approach in this campaign is unprecedented in itself. The country's first approach in aspirational districts was to identify the basic problems of these districts. People were associated and asked about their problems. Our second approach was to continuously improve the modus operandi based on the experiences of the aspirational districts. We embarked on a work culture, in which there was a selection of measurable indicators, in which the present condition of the district was compared with the best condition of the state and the country, in which there was real-time monitoring of progress, in which there was a healthy competition with other districts and there was enthusiasm and efforts to replicate the best practices. The third approach during this campaign was to carry out governance reforms which helped in building an effective team in the districts. As the NITI Aayog in its presentation said the stable tenure of the officers helped a lot in implementing the policies in a better way. And for this, I congratulate the chief ministers. You all have gone through these experiences yourself. I reiterated these things so that people could realize the impact of good governance. When we follow the mantra of emphasis on basics, then its results are also available. And today I would like to add one more thing to this. You should make efforts to make detailed guidelines for field visits, inspections and night halts; a model should be developed. You will realize how much it will benefit you.

Friends,

In view of the successes achieved in the aspirational districts, the country has now expanded its targets further. In this virtuous period of freedom, the country's goal is 100% saturation of services and facilities. That is, we have a long way to go from what we have achieved so far. And it has to be done on a large scale. There should be a time-bound target for each district as to how to ensure road in every village of our district, how to make Ayushman Bharat card accessible to every eligible person, how to arrange bank accounts, no poor family should be deprived of Ujjwala gas connection and every eligible person should get the benefit of government insurance, pension and house schemes. Similarly, each district should prepare its own vision for the next two years. You can decide on any 10 such tasks which can be completed in the next three months and which should improve the ease of living of the common man. Similarly, decide any five tasks related to the Amrit Mahotsav of freedom and implement them. This should become the historical achievements of yours, your district and the people of your district in this historic period. Just as the country is endeavoring to advance the aspirational districts, you can set your priorities and goals at the block level in the district. You must also recognize the merits of the district for which you have got the responsibility and connect with them. The potential of the district is hidden in these qualities. You have seen that the 'One District, One Product' is based on the merits of the district. It should be your mission to provide national and global identity to your district. That is, apply the mantra of ‘Vocal for Local’ to your districts also. You will have to identify the traditional products and skills of the district and strengthen the value chains. The country is witnessing a silent revolution in the form of Digital India. No district should be left behind in this. It is very important that digital infrastructure should reach every village in our country and become a means of door-step delivery of services and facilities. The DMs and central officers in charge of the districts whose progress has been slower than expected in the NITI Aayog report will have to make special efforts. I would also tell the NITI Aayog to develop a mechanism so that there is regular interaction between DMs of all the districts so that each district can implement each other's best practices. All the ministries of the Center should also document all the challenges that are coming up in different districts. They should also see how the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan can help in this regard.

Friends,

In today's program, I want to put another challenge before you; I want to give a new goal. This challenge is for 142 districts of 22 states of the country. These districts are not lagging behind in the race for development. These are not in the category of aspirational districts. They have progressed very much. But despite being ahead in many parameters, there are one or two parameters in which they are lagging behind. Therefore, I had told the ministries to identify such parameters. Some found ten, four or six districts. For example, there is a district where everything else is very good but there is the problem of malnutrition. Similarly, all the indicators are fine in a district but it is lagging behind in education. Different ministries and departments of the government have prepared a list of 142 such districts. Now we have to work with the same collective approach as done in the aspirational districts in these different 142 districts which are behind in one or two parameters. This is a new opportunity and a challenge for all the governments, the Government of India, state governments, district administration and the government machinery. Now we have to meet this challenge together. I have full faith that I will continue to get the cooperation of all my chief minister colleagues in the future.

Friends,

Right now, there is a Corona situation prevailing. All the districts have an important role in preparing for Corona, its management, and simultaneously maintaining the pace of development. Considering the future challenges in these districts, work should start from now on.

Friends,

Our sages have said – ''जल बिन्दु निपातेन क्रमशः पूर्यते घट:'' meaning pitcher is filled with every drop of water! Therefore, your every effort in the aspirational districts will take your district to a new level of development. I would like to tell the civil services colleagues who are present here to remember one more thing. You must remember the day when it was your first day in this service. How much you wanted to do for the country, how much you were full of enthusiasm and the spirit of service. Now you have to move forward with the same spirit. There is so much to do and so much to gain during this virtuous period of independence. The development of every aspirational district will fulfill the dreams of the country. The realization of the dream of a new India that we have seen on the completion of hundred years of independence goes through these districts and villages. I am sure that you will leave no stone unturned in your endeavours. When the country fulfills its dreams, then there will be a major role of all of you friends in its golden chapter. With this belief, I thank all the chief ministers and congratulate all the young comrades for the hard work they have done in their respective lives and the results. Thank you very much! 26th January is very near. There is pressure for that too and the district magistrates have more pressure. You are in the front line in the battle against Corona for the last two years. And in such a situation, I am troubling you to be with me on Saturday, but still, it is a matter of happiness for me with the enthusiasm with which you all joined this event. I thank you all very much! I wish you the very best!

DISCLAIMER: This is the approximate translation of PM’s speech. Original speech was delivered in Hindi.

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DS/AKJ/VK/AK