By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 14 Sep: The Governor of Uttarakhand, Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd) took oath as the 8th Governor of Uttarakhand on 15 September, 2021. He completes the first year of his tenure on Thursday. The Governor’s is a constitutional post and is the highest office in the state. In the last one year, the Governor has discharged the constitutional obligations with dignity and always given importance to the fact that there is a popularly elected government in the state, which is guided by constitutional limits and obligations.
After serving the country for 40 years in the Army, as the first citizen of the state in Devbhoomi, the Governor has been devoted to the girl child’s welfare and education, women empowerment and quick resolution of the problems of ex-servicemen. Within three months of taking charge as the Governor, he visited all the districts of the state and met women, ex-servicemen, farmers and public representatives of the districts and saw the problems as well as the opportunities there. The doors of the Raj Bhavan were opened for the common person, soldiers and their dependants. For resolving the problems of the soldiers and their dependants, a Grievance Redressal Officer has been posted in the Raj Bhavan, who will only deal with the grievances related to the ex-service personnel. In order to encourage women self-help groups and rural producers, they were invited to Raj Bhavan. He also visited the districts and motivated them.
The Governor has made an impact on Uttarakhand in the one year of his tenure. For the development of Uttarakhand, he has set five mantras or missions, on which he is constantly focused. These mantras are – reverse migration, women empowerment and girl child education, artificial intelligence and technology, organic and natural agriculture, and identifying and moving forward on any one area that is proving to be a game changer for Uttarakhand.
In order to ensure the accountability and autonomy of the universities, the Governor issued instructions for regular video recording of the meetings and related proceedings to ensure complete transparency and sanctity in the appointments and meetings of the Executive Councils. Not only this, he has been always ensured the appointment of Vice Chancellors in universities. Video recording of interviews was also started to bring transparency in the interviews of Vice Chancellors of universities. For the first time in the Raj Bhavan, a meeting of private universities located in the state was held under the Chairmanship of the Governor. All the universities promised to participate in the schemes related to the development of the state along with providing quality education. The process of developing an affiliation portal by Raj Bhavan to make online arrangements for affiliation of state universities is also in progress.
Under the direction of the Governor, Rs 5,000 per student was distributed to 221 poor meritorious students of the state in 2021-22 and Rs 25,000 per student to 25 students selected to central institutions as incentive. A seminar was organised in Raj Bhavan to create awareness about the treatment and prevention of Arthritis. Efforts are on to develop a “Green Raj Bhavan” through Rain Water Harvesting in the Raj Bhavan premises. An Ayurvedic Marma Medical Centre was started in Raj Bhavan, which provides facilities to the officers and employees of Raj Bhavan. An online web portal and mobile app are being developed under Artificial Intelligence based smart automation system for the Raj Bhavan.
He has visited all the district headquarters and forward posts in one year. Like previous years, a “Flower Exhibition” was organised at the Raj Bhavan, Dehradun. This time, expanding the “Flower Exhibition”, the products of local small-scale industries were also exhibited. The BRO has been asked to make a proposal for road connectivity in the border places of the state and he is personally following-up with the central government. During his visit to districts, the Governor also inspected the hospitals and gave necessary directions to the officials.
