I am delighted to share with you my thoughts on the prosperity of Rajasthan through this message as you are celebrating 58th Foundation Day of Rajasthan. Rajasthan poetically described as the brightest jewel of India has been making steady progress right from its Foundation from the year 1949. I would like to congratulate the people of Rajasthan through you and wish them a glorious future.

Rajasthan and me

I wish you all success in your mission of realizing further prosperity and happiness for the whole state. As you are celebrating this day, I would like to recall my association and experience of working with people of Rajasthan. I have visited many parts of Rajasthan including rural areas five times after becoming President of India and witnessed in person, the Rajasthan culture, art, history and above all the generosity of the people of Rajasthan. At this juncture, an important event of my close association with Rajasthan comes to my mind. This was the life time experience for me in the region, where I spent large part of my time, during the ten year period when I was the Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister. That region was in the desert region of Rajasthan, the Pokhran area. This place was the theater of action for me and our team and to the scientists and technologists from the Department of Atomic Energy. In this place, we were working continuously during days and nights for months, particularly in the month of May, when noon temperature was over 53 degree Celsius. But we never felt the summer heat because we were in an important national mission at Rajasthan desert. When the mission was completed on 11th and 13th May 1998, the nation got transformed into a Nuclear weapon state. People of Rajasthan were with us for many years in this mission and they were indeed great partners in various phases of this mission. People may not be knowing what we were doing but they all knew the importance of the mission and they maintained a unique silence, which was essential in the execution of such missions. Also, I have seen many full moon nights in Rajasthan desert during this period. They were extremely beautiful with shiny white sand where herd of spotted deer used to give the glimpse of their majestic movement.

Vision for Rajasthan

Dear Legislators, all of you together have been continuously contributing to the growth and prosperity of Rajasthan during the last 58 years. I thought what thoughts I should share with you on this important day. Rajasthan is endowed with nearly 40,000 villages where 75% of the people live. Hence, the upliftment of these villages would be the one of the most priority areas of development by using PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) and creating 450 PURA Village Clusters, apart from other development activities in agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors and urban development. Let me start with my visualization of Rajasthan in the year 2017:

a) The people living below poverty line will become near zero from the existing 16% and the prosperity will emerge.

b) The per capita income of the state will increase from the present Rs. 17,500 to Rs.75,000.

c) Infant mortality rate will become less than 10 per thousand from the present 67. The State will be free from water borne diseases and affordable quality heath care will be available to all.

d) The state will realize 100% literacy from the existing 62% and the Human Development Index will become less than five.

e) All citizens of Rajasthan particularly women will be empowered with quality education, healthcare and employment potential.

Rajasthan is blessed with large land mass, natural resources such as minerals and materials, many places of tourist attraction and traditionally brave people with the mighty will and courage to face even severe natural hazards like drought. The Indira Gandhi canal is indeed is a beautiful water resource added to Rajasthan and it has to be further extended with combination of transportation of water through pipes and use of cement lined canal for avoiding evaporation. It is known throughout the world that all desert regions are endowed with natural resources such as oil and gas and we have to explore and exploit them in full. The availability of lignite in the state will enable further augmentation of electric power. With all these resources, Rajasthan has the potential to transform into a prosperous state well before 2017. It is time for Rajasthan to have a ten year vision so that the people of Rajasthan can focus and work on development missions for the State. The people of Rajasthan are really looking for such challenges. Dear Legislators, this is the great opportunity for you to work as a team to generate a long term vision for the State with your understanding, experience and foresight and give leadership for realizing them in a time bound manner. Let us now look together what is the mission of PURA.

The Mission of PURA

One of the important components of national development is the creation of PURAs (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). PURA envisages integrated connectivities to bring prosperity to rural India. These are - physical connectivity of the village clusters through quality roads and transport; electronic connectivity through tele-communication with high bandwidth fiber optic cables reaching the rural areas from urban cities and through internet kiosks; and knowledge connectivity through education, vocational training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. These three connectives will lead to economic connectivity through starting of enterprises with the help of banks, micro credits and marketing of the products.

Each PURA cluster will connect about 50 to 100 villages in desert region with a population of around one lakh. The funding can come from Bharat Nirman Programme as well as the State Development Programmes apart from private sector participation. After initial short-term employment during construction etc., we have to plan for initiating actions for providing regular employment and self employment opportunities in nationally and internationally competitive enterprises in agro processing in manufacturing and services sectors for all employable people in the PURA cluster. PURA programme will provide sustainable economic development for the rural sector.

In addition to the rural prosperity created by the PURA system, Rajasthan will be a power surplus State with 2000 MWs of lignite based power plants, 1000 MWs of wind energy farms and 1000 MWs of solar thermal power plants with the support of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in addition to the generating capacity created by nuclear power plants. It will become the top State in mining particularly in Zinc, Lead, Gold, and other rare metals. Rajasthan will contribute ten million tones of crude oil every year to the country. Rajasthan will become the most sought after tourist destination. The State will provide a conducive atmosphere for growth of industries in IT, ITES and BPO sectors. The State will have an e-Governance system working towards a fully transparent citizen?s centric administrative system. The State will be a model State for the country.

Conclusion

The strength of the sixty million people who can cohesively work for the prosperity of Rajasthan is the core competence of Rajasthan. Capacity of the Legislators to integrate the society with technology, knowledge and skills imbibed with the native value system and heritage and seamlessly integrating the people of the State particularly the 30 million youth of Rajasthan with the development process will definitely enhance the Prosperity Index of Rajasthan. While doing so, Rajasthan may take into account the special aspects associated with the State in water management so that we can reduce the effect of evaporation and increase productive availability of water. Simultaneously, Rajasthan should become a leader in creating Arid Agriculture and Horticulture Zone Technology. Tourism development could be done through an integrated approach of providing transportation, accommodation, tourists friendly hospitality, research based tourist guidance and provision of special artifacts of the region showcasing the core competence of the State. Such coordinated action will ensure that Rajasthan will have the economic opportunities of the urban areas and the tranquility of life of rural areas available in both places with high prosperity index. Each one of the citizen of Rajasthan, irrespective of the profession, age group, specialization or political affiliation should be enable to contribute for the single mission of making Rajasthan one of the most prosperous states in the country. Now, I would like to suggest a Seven point Oath to the people of Rajasthan.

Oath for the Citizens of Rajasthan on the 58th Foundation Day:

1. I will plant at least five trees in my house or in my surrounding and nurture those with rain water stored through water harvesting.

2. I will work and work for the development and prosperity of Rajasthan.

3. I will have a small family for health and prosperity.

4. From now onwards I will teach at least five persons to read and write those who cannot read and write.

5. Water is our asset. I will conserve every drop of water. I will activate at least one water pond in my village in partnership with village citizens or in my locality.

6. Tourists are our guests. I will provide all help to the tourists to make their stay in the State pleasant and purposeful.

7. I will lead a righteous life derived from Rajasthani culture and be a role model for my children.

My greetings and best wishes to all the citizens of Rajasthan through you the Hon?ble Members of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly on the occasion of the 58th Foundation Day.

May God bless you.

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