Is the dream of developed India coming true?

Recently I heard from some of my friends that there has been lot of development in last few years in Gujarat. I thought I should investigate myself. I tried to find the truth about this and my findings made me speechless and that is the reason I am writing here some of those my findings.

Desert converting to water beds – Long time back I read one article about erosion of soil and expansion of desert with the course of time. I was thinking what could be solution of this kind of problem. I was not able to think about the solution. But after my findings I found that Gujarat already implemented the solution. North Gujarat which is in direct contact with Rajasthan had lot of water scarcity. In North Gujarat slowly soil started converting into sand and cultivated fields started converting into desert. Gujarat govt started working on a plan to shift Narmada water towards north Gujarat. For this they drilled big hole in mountain and though 60 pumps each having 1000HP they pushed water in those areas. For distribution of water they created 700KM of pipelines. They As a result water reached into those deserted places and these deserted places not even starting becoming green but also desert started getting shrink!!

River Linking project – Few years back Indian Govt started a project in India for river linking for even distribution of water everywhere but somehow this did not happened successfully in India. But Gujarat kept working on this and as a result 20 rivers in Gujarat got interconnected and because of this Sawarmati river which does not have water from last 20years got Narmada water!!. This project helped in spreading water across whole Gujarat. This eradicated the scarcity of water for farmers and helped them in cultivation.

Ground Water Level Coming Up - Have you ever heard that in any place water level is coming up? I am dam sure you are not. I always heard that ground water level is going down and down every year and situation is getting worse day by day in most of the countries especially in urban areas. Few years back in Gujarat also water level was going down. Then govt took initiative and they came to conclusion that until water level need to be maintained in rivers for ground water recharging. So Gujarat govt created 15,000 check dams in all rivers and major canals of Gujarat. River linking project also helped a lot in even distribution of water all over Gujarat. Result of these ground water recharging was ground water level starting coming up.

24hour electricity in all villages - In India there was not a single village that has 24hr electricity available. Gujarat again did miracle. Gujarat govt in 1000 days electrified all 18000 villages with 3phase electricity supply 24hours through “Jyotigram Yojna”!! This helped a lot the rural areas in education, IT, small scale industries etc. Doctors earlier were reluctant in going to villages but now they don’t have any problem. Many people in Gujarat are going back to villages from town. Gujarat electricity board had deficit of 2500 crores Rs which because of conscious efforts of Govt. now converted into 400 crores of profit.

Infant mortality rate - India stands on 127 positions in human development index. In India’s 6 lakhs villages we have approximately 2000 gynecologist. To reduce the Infant mortality rate Gujarat govt started "Chiranjivi Yojna". They started public/private partnership in health sector. Gujarat govt told private sector doctors that if they will treat any BPL pregnant woman and save her life than govt will pay her charges which are approx 2000Rs. Due to this scheme in 1 year 1,58,000 women got benefit of this scheme. In absence of this scheme 6000 pregnant women could have died in just one year.

Girl’s education - In 2001 Gujarat had 20th position in India in girl education. In 2001 it had 49% dropout rates in schools and now it has 3% drop out rate because of consistent efforts of govt. of Gujarat. In 2010 Gujarat is planning for 0% drop out rate!!

Roads and infrastructure- Gujarat is number one in India for Infrastructure. In recent few years Gujarat became the “Petro-Capital” of India with India’s 54% crude oil production, 45% natural gas production. Gujarat has 2 LPG terminal and 2200KM of gas grid across state for distribution of gas.

Gujarat has 74000 KM of road, 11 airports, 41 ports, 18SEZ (special economic zone), Agro park, industrial parks. All these are best in India and most of these developed in last few years. Not only these in Gujarat lot of engineering, medical, law collages are opened in recent years. Even Gujarat is planning to open India’s first forensic science collage which is going to help a lot in criminal investigations.

108 emergency medical services - Most of us already know in USA there is a service called 911 emergency calling services. In few other developed nations also similar type of services are there. But can you believe in our country also there is a place where this kind of service is already available. Yes Gujarat is a state where Govt. has provided 108 emergency calling medical services. For getting urgent medical attention patient just need to dial 108. This service is right now fully functional in all rural/urban areas of Gujarat. Mobile ambulances are used to carry patients to hospitals. This helped a lot in reducing the cases of death because of delay in medical attention.

Soil erosion prevention - Worldwide every nation is feeling the heat of soil erosion. In India also every year percentage of cultivated land is reducing gradually. Most of us know the reasons for erosion mostly are use of inappropriate fertilizer, continuous corps production without soil enrichment, soil pollution and sometime due to lack of water. We all heard about the medical card of people but Gujarat is a first state who issues soil card for every land to farmers. Now every farmer takes the soil specimen and provides to the scientists and they examines the mineral composition in the soil and based on that they provides the fertilizer with appropriate mineral percentage. This helped in soil enrichment and also reduced the erosion of the land in great extent. Early in Gujarat farmers were able to grow only on crop in a year now because of balanced fertilizer farmers are able to grow three crops every year which also increased there profit by three fold.

Finally I will say that this kind of development in our country is nothing less than a Miracle. This also gives message to all Indians that there is no need to leave hope that nothing can improve in India. After seeing Gujarat development I am pretty convinced that if we have effective government then India can become a developed country and one day a super power. I can say Gujarat is a "developed state within developing country".