Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju visited Chandel district headquarters in Manipur on Monday and reviewed the Aspirational Districts Programme taken up in the district.
Rijiju, who also holds the minority affairs portfolio, was accompanied by State Chief Minister N. Biren Singh during the day’s visit.
Earlier, Rijiju arrived at Imphal Airport from Guwahati by a helicopter at around 12 noon.
Then Union Minister and Chief Minister N. Biren were airlifted by the same helicopter for Chandel district headquarters, 65 km south of Imphal for a review meeting.
Chandel is one of the 112 aspirational districts of the country.
At the office of the Chandel Deputy Commissioner, the union minister and the chief minister planted tree saplings and inaugurated a one stop centre at the Integrated Children Development Services Cell.
Besides, the union minister also distributed LPG connections to selected beneficiaries under the PMUY scheme.
Later, speaking to the reporters, union minister Rijiju said Chandel district has been selected as an aspirational district as it was lagging behind in some development parameters.
“But the district has been tremendously progressing in various sectors in the last one year,” said Rijiju.
Rijiju further said he had reviewed the challenges and performance in key sectors like education, health and other parameters of development of the district during the meeting.
He maintained that there is need to focus on these sectors and centrally sponsored schemes, which are not fully reaching to the grassroots due to lack of communication.
Visited chandel dist.with Hon’ble Union Minister of State (IC) for YAS Shri @KirenRijiju and officials ,also inspected various projects under the #AspirationalDistrictProgramme of #NITIAayog also distributed Gas Cylinder to some beneficiaries . pic.twitter.com/QYTl30u96a
— N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) September 2, 2019
In the next one year, the government would improve in all the sectors, Rijiju said.
The union minister also appreciated the State and district authorities for extending help in bringing further development and improvement of amenities under the Aspirational Districts Programme.
Responding to a question on National Sports University (NSU) in Manipur, the union minister maintained that he would review works related to it with the officials concerned at Imphal on Tuesday.
On the delay in construction of the NSU, he said the construction of the university has been delayed due to technical reasons.
He assured that there would be no further delay.
Stating that the National Sports University is not a State or regional university but a national level institute, Rijiju said, “The government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with top universities of the world to make the National Sports University a top-class university.”