HAILAKANDI, March 1 - Hailakandi has made leapfrogged from the 52nd position to the No. 1 slot among the aspirational districts of India, according to the Delta ranking released by NITI Aayog.
In the championsofchange. gov.in portal of the NITI Aayog, Hailakandi has been given the overall No. 1 ranking among the 112 aspirational districts of India on the basis of Delta ranking covering performance in November-December 2018 and in January 2019. Kondagaon of Chhattisgarh follows next. In the education sector, Hailakandi ranks No.1 followed by Khunti of Jharkhand.
A conference on SDGs in aspirational districts has been convened on March 6 in New Delhi by NITI Aayog where the Deputy Commissioners of the awarded districts have been invited and would receive additional allocation on the basis of Delta ranking covering performance in November-December 2018 and in January 2019. �Aspirational district Hailakandi will be given an additional allocation of Rs 10 crore for securing the first overall ranking,� said Assistant Commissioner, Parikshit Phurkan, adding that Government of India has approved a special scheme for SDGs in aspirational districts under which additional allocation to districts on challenge method is envisaged on performance based competition.
It may be mentioned that Hailakandi district was put at the bottom rung of the aspirational districts among the least improved districts in the second Delta ranking conducted in June-October 2018. The then Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan (now posted as DC Bongaigaon) dashed off a letter to CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, for his intervention to put things in proper perspective vis-a-vis rectifying the mismatch in official data and that of the data collected by TATA Trusts during its field survey. Khan pointed out that proper survey was not possible as most parts of the district were reeling under floods in June.
Following Khan�s matter-of-fact submission, NITI Aayog removed Hailakandi district from the least improved category tag.
Deputy Commissioner, Keerthi Jalli congratulated Team Hailakandi for putting in great efforts to make the district the No. 1 among the aspirational districts of India. �Hearty congratulations to each and every member of the team who have worked hard in achieving this rank. Kudos to all. Proud of you,� she added.
Welcoming the latest development, officials of the district administration said it would augur well for Hailakandi, as the aspirational district will get additional funds for further development.
Deputy Commissioner Jalli has set her list of priorities, focusing on development and weeding out corruption to catapult Hailakandi from an aspirational district to a developed and leading district of India.
