The President of
India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam inaugurated the two-day Conference
of Governors at Rashtrapati Bhavan here today. Twenty-eight Governors
and three Lt. Governors of the States and Union Territories are
attending the Conference. The Vice-President Shri Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat, the Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Deputy
Prime Minister Shri L.K. Advani, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning
Commission and Union Ministers of Defence, External Affairs, Human
Resource Development, Disinvestment and North East, Agriculture,
Water Resources, Youth Affairs and Sports are also participating.
In his opening address
the President said every state should aspire to become economically
developed with peace and prosperity. If all the states develop
then only could the nation develop. The role of the Governor would
be to promote this national vision at every opportunity. He said
Governors were best suited to provide sage advice to the people
and the government, being statesmen and having vast experience.
Each Governor, he said had a responsibility in providing partnership
for the State administration to succeed. The President said we
had to collectively fight and eliminate communal differences and
insurgency.
Touching on the need
for mission-oriented approach for networking of rivers, the President
said that it was vital to manage the flood – drought conditions
that repeat themselves in some parts of the country. A prime ingredient
of this task would be imparting the requisite thrust to the networking
of the river systems to transfer water from surplus basins to
areas of deficit. To offset this regional hydro-imbalance, the
need of the hour was to have a water mission which will enable
widespread availability of water without compromising on environmental
safety or unleashing mindless appropriation of the earth’s bounty,
he added. During the study of such mega projects Dr. Kalam said,
it would be natural that there would be extreme and different
views on various issues. In this situation the Governors could
play a salutary role in creating a climate of consensus amongst
the States to facilitate the linking of the river-system for the
overall good of the nation.
Initiating the discussions,
the doyen of Governors, the Governor of Meghalaya, Shri M.M. Jacob
called for an Integration Council at the State level so that constant
monitoring of the communal situation and related problems could
be done. The Governors also called for economic and developmental
measures to upgrade the life of the people and for greater road,
rail and air connectivity between various areas in their states.
The Governors were
of the opinion that there was an urgent need to evolve an integrated
approach towards security as also development concurrently so
that a congenial climate for a prosperous, developed and secure
India is created. Adderessing issues in isolation or compartmentally
only results in wastage of time and resources. An integrated approach
would require the State Governments and the Central Government
to work in close partnership for a harmonized objective. Another
important ingredient for such an approcach is a proactive and
actionable intelligence forecasting and intelligence gathering
mechanism. It was also felt that there was need to evolve an appropriate
machinery for prompt and speedy investigation of criminal activities
and detection of anti-national and militant elements well in time.
It was also stressed that there was immediate need to adopt measures
to ensure quick dispensation of justice and redressal and grievances
to dispel feelings of neglect and alienation. The conference noted
with satisfaction the promptness with which the terrorist attack
on our Parliament was thwarted and how the offenders were so expeditiously
charge-sheeted and convicted.
The deputy Prime
Minister Shri L.K. Advani made observation on the internal security
situation in the country in the context of issues raised by the
Governors. Union Minister of Defence, External Affairs, Disinvestment
and North East also responded to various issues raised by the
Governors.
A film on the proposed
inter-linking of rivers prepared by the Ministry of Water Resources
was also shown to the participants Union Minister for Water Resources
said it is expected that the feasibility reports would be completed
by 2005 and the entire project would be completed by 2016. A Task
Force has already been formed which will interact with all the
states, experts and all others concerned before finalising the
action plan to attain this objective.
