Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Nuapada, which has been not in the first list of the NDA government’s 100 Aspirational Districts, has emerged as the second top ‘Most Improved Districts’ of country, according to the NITI Aayog’s Delta Ranking of Aspriational Districts of India. Koraput has found place in the top five districts. The Rankings of the two districts are also same in the ‘Improvement in Basic Infrastructure’ category.
In ‘Improvement in Education’ category, Nuapada has ranked second while in ‘Improvement in Agriculture & Water Resources’ category, Gajapati district has been ranked second. In ‘Improvement in Skill Development’, Rayagada has been placed at the fourth spot.
The government of India had identified 8 districts in Odisha as most backward and included in the100 ‘ Transformation of Aspirational District’ programme . The state government raised a protest in selecting the districts without the consultation of the state government. The state government had pointed out that how come Dhenkanal which is a developed district found place in the list while the most backward district Nawarangpur and Nuapada were left behind. However, buckling under the pressure from the chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the Centre expanded the list and included two backeward districts Nuapada and Nawarangpur in the list.
NITI Aayog’s Delta Ranking for the Aspirational Districts measures the incremental progress made by them between June 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018, across six developmental areas of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure.
The Surveys were carried out in all Aspirational Districts during the month of June 2018 covering more than 1,00,000 households. Launched by the Prime Minister in January this year, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme aims to quickly and effectively transform 115 of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
