Assam:  NITI Aayog removes Hailakandi from least improved tag 

In the Second Delta Ranking of Aspirational Districts Programme released by NITI Aayog for June-October on December 27 last year, Hailakandi was ranked 110 out of the 111 aspirational districts.

Hailakandi

Aspirational district Hailakandi has been removed from the least improved districts tag by NITI Aayog following the initiative by the Hailakandi district administration.

In the Second Delta Ranking of Aspirational Districts Programme released by NITI Aayog for June-October on December 27 last year, Hailakandi was ranked 110 out of the 111 aspirational districts of the country, which caught the district administration by surprise.

The then Deputy Commissioner, Adil Khan (he handed over charge on Monday before assuming office as Deputy Commissioner, Bongaigaon) at once brought the matter to the notice of CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant and pointed out the mismatch in data collected by TATA Trusts, knowledge partner of NITI Aayog with that of the official data resulting in drastic fall in ranking of Hailakandi from 62nd position in October to 110th in December. Khan also apprised Kant that no proper survey could be conducted in June last year due to the unprecedented deluge.

Moreover,  in course of a meeting with a high level delegation comprising officials from NITI Aayog and TATA Trusts in January, Khan brought the mismatch in data to the notice of all concerned. Eventually NITI Aayog and TATA Trusts acknowledged the fact that there was mismatch in data as a result of which Hailakandi’s overall ranking took a nosedive.

Khan’s painstaking and relentless efforts yielded positive results with NITI Aayog removing Hailakandi district from the least improved districts category. “Our stand has been vindicated with NITI Aayog taking steps on the letter written by me to the CEO by removing Hailakandi from the list of least improved districts, ” said Khan, adding that  considerable improvement had already taken place in the key performance indicators and this would be reflected in the next Delta rankings.