Completing 14 years in office, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh transforms the State from the country's Rice Bowl to a robust growth engine.
Dr Raman Singh is an odd man out in a cacophonic world of self-promotion. The 65-year-old chief minister of Chhattisgarh, who completed 14 years in office last month, maintains a rather surprisingly low profile. Shunning publicity, Dr Singh prefers his work to do all the talking. Incidentally, Dr Singh, an Ayurvedic doctor turned-politician, has become the country's first, longest-serving, BJP chief minister. Besides, he has found a place among the top-eight, longest serving chief ministers in the country.
What is striking about the Chhattisgarh chief minister is not just his long tenure but the quality of his rule. In these 14 years, Dr Singh has confronted the Naxal menace in the Central Indian State with effective welfare schemes and lasting infrastructure development. A silent performer, Dr Singh's government is credited with a host of progressive steps that have put the State on a fast growth path.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh has gone far beyond just being the Rice Bowl of India. The State government's effective paddy procurement policy and transparent public distribution system (PDS) have made Chhattisgarh a model State that ranks topmost in unveiling far-reaching PDS reforms.
Leveraging the State's natural bounties of rich mineral resources and a wide-ranging farm produce, Dr Singh has turned Chhattisgarh into a thriving industrial hub of the country. Besides, his government's simplified rules and procedures have placed the State among the frontrunners in ease of doing business.
In its pursuit of industrial investments, the State has not turned a blind eye to its multiple social problems. In short, the State government has been trying hard to live up to the aspirations of its people. In fact, it was the neglect of these very aspirations that led to the birth of Chhattisgarh in 2000, carved out of Madhya Pradesh during the previous NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee.
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