New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Sunday that malnutrition is a much bigger threat than Maoist violence in the state and that his government is working hard to improve the health of the people.
The Chief Minister while speaking at a programme here said, “Today malnutrition is a bigger threat than Maoism in the state.”
He said over 37 per cent of the state’s children are malnourished.
“Thus to provide good nutrition to the children we have started Suposhan scheme in scheme in over 109 panchayats of the state,” he said. “And on October 2, the ‘Suposhit’ scheme will be launched in all the districts,” he said.
Highlighting the works of his government in the last eight months in the state, Baghel said, “After we came to power we returned the lands of the tribals which were acquired in 2006 but no industries was set up.”
“We returned 4,200 acres of land located in 1,700 villages to the tribal people,” he said.
He said his government also waived off farm loans of the farmers in the state.
The Chief Minister underlined that the tribals’ welfare had not been considered. “So I decided to speak to them to remove the trust gap that they have with the government,” he said.
He said to increase the income of the farmers his government also bought the paddies from them at the rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal which is much higher than any state government.
To provide better medical facilities, Baghel said he took the primary health centres in the local ‘haats’, so that more tribal people can come there for treatment.
“I am happy to share that the list of patients arriving at the local haats is much more higher than the patients arriving at the OPDs of a primary health centre and government hospitals,” he said, adding that it has brought the medical facilities much closer to the people.
Baghel also appealed to industrialists to come to Chhattisgarh for investment and that his government will help them in providing land and power.
Referring to the water problem, he said, “Groundwater level is falling across the country. Thus I have made a scheme to recharge the groundwater in the state by working on the nallahs.”
He said a detailed project report of over 1,028 nallahs has already been made.
–IANS
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