Industry body Assocham on Monday asked Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat to encourage private investments, create more jobs and promote healthcare sector to help the hill state achieve speedy economic growth.
Congratulating Rawat on his appointment as the new Chief Minister of the hill state, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said this has generated fresh hopes for the state's economic turnaround.
Harish Rawat took charge of the state on February 1, replacing Vijay Bahuguna.
Given the development needs of the state, improving health care services and creating sustainable income generation opportunities are the two key challenges before the state government, the industry body said.
Innovative approaches are required to meet the challenges in view of the state's demography and the physical and the social environment, he added.
Citing latest Assocham data, Rawat said the state's domestic product recorded a 12.4 per cent growth between 2004-05 and 2012-13. Industry and services segments of the state economy recorded 16.7 per cent and 13.1 per cent growth respectively during the eight years till March 2013.
However, agricultural growth during this period was a mere 2.6 per cent, the Assocham official said.
At the end of December 2013, the state had live investment projects valued at Rs 1.13 lakh crore.
Live investments witnessed a jump of mere Rs 3,000 crore, he said.
Investments being implemented accounted for 48.7 per cent share in total live investments. The electricity sector has about 77 per cent share in total live investments, he added. Though Uttarakhand allocates over Rs 1,200 crore annually to health, the intended result remains elusive owing to mainly systemic and operational inefficiencies, the Assocham secretary general said.
Asking for a more transparent system, he said the officials needs to be made more responsible and availability of medical officers and paramedical staff improved.
Facilities and medicines obtained under the different multilateral funding schemes must be fully utilised, he added.
With transportation emerging as a severe bottleneck in the state, mobile health centres and mobile operation theatre facilities must be strengthened, Assocham said.
The second most important challenge to the state government is to enable people to achieve economic security, the Assocham Secretary General said.
Horticulture emerges as the most sustainable source of economic growth in Uttarakhand. Compared to traditional crops, horticulture yields as much as over five times gross returns.
Besides being more remunerative, horticultural crops are labour-intensive and therefore fit well in the cropping schemes of small land holders, the Assocham official said.
However, government needs to ensure availability of planting material, technology, finance and marketing for horticulture crops. In the absence of support, farmers rely on contractors and traders and can get exploited.
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