The Minister’s Mantras
RAVINDRA CHAUBEY Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Chhattisgarh
“Policies should keep in mind the poorest of the poor. Our focus has been on health, tackling malnutrition and remunerative prices for farmers for their produce”
SAURABH PATEL Minister for Energy, Gujarat
“Our mantra is financial discipline. Gujarat is probably the only state that has kept borrowings [low], at 16.5 per cent of GSDP when 27.1 per cent is allowed. [Our] fiscal deficit has been pegged at 2.1 per cent when 3 per cent is allowed”
MANPREET BADAL Minister for Finance, Punjab
“The issue of stagnant resources affects all states. The power to tax is saturated. We must do more with less. Our focus is how to charge for quality services and how to harness technology to deliver services”
JAI VARDHAN SINGH
Minister for Urban Administration and Housing, Madhya Pradesh
“Our priorities are hard work, motivation and vision. Unless one is motivated to work hard every day, [long-term] development is not possible. MP is fortunate to have a CM who has all these attributes”
PRATAP JENA Minister for Panchayats, Housing and Law, Odisha
“The main drive for development in Odisha is Naveen babu. He has been elected CM for the fifth time. We believe in transparency, timebound action and honesty”
K. KESHAVA RAO
Member of Parliament from Telangana
“We focus on hard, never-ending work. With the growing aspirations of people, hard work has to go on constantly. Growth should not be seen purely in economic terms—it is important to measure how well it reaches the people. Telangana has a system of social audits for that”
SANDEEP SINGH Minister for Sports, Haryana
“I have one aim; to build stadiums that can support six or seven sporting disciplines—and are maintenance-free—in rural areas because 70 per cent of medal winners come from rural areas. I want to take Haryana to the pinnacle of sporting achievement. My mantra is to not feel satisfied at any time— that will be the end of your career”
CHANDRA MOHAN PATOWARY Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Industry, Commerce and Transport, Assam
“Our focus for development is leadership, vision, hard work and tackling corruption. The prime minister works 18 hours a day, and so does our chief minister. He has given us four mantras: zero tolerance to extremism, to infiltration, to corruption and to pollution”
SATYENDRA JAIN Minister for Home, Health and Industries, Delhi
“All decisions should be taken keeping the people in mind. Public money should be spent on the public. The government is the custodian of public money”
KUNGA NIMA LEPCHA Minister for Education, Sikkim
“We have focused on health and education. We are addressing the dwindling enrolment in primary education—residential schools are being promoted—and we are also pushing for organic farming. We are also promoting health tourism”