Jammu Tawi, Dec 09: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today said that the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be a very powerful tool to measure
development in general and sustainable development in particular, and added that
the governments have to measure development to improve further.
The Chief Secretary stated it while chairing the workshop on Sustainable
Development Goals and delivering the keynote address, he said, “If we do not
measure development, we do not improve. If we do not measure with consistency, it
is just anecdotal. The SDG tool will be a very powerful tool to measure development
in general and sustainable development in particular”.
Dr Mehta also exhorted upon the departments to utilize the SDG mechanism
to chart a plan till 2030.
He further reiterated that J&K is the front runner in implementing several
schemes and programmes and is also closing to saturating several other schemes.
The consultation was organized in collaboration with NITI Aayog, Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).
The UT-wide consultation saw participation from senior officials of all
departments of Jammu and Kashmir and included speakers and experts from Union
Ministries, State Governments and UNDP.
The Sustainable Development Goals or the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable
Development is a global consensus signed by India and 190 plus countries of the
world in 2015.
It includes 17 Goals and 169 global targets, which cut across social, economic
and environmental dimensions. In India, NITI Aayog, in close coordination with
MoSPI, monitors the progress on the global goals at the national as well as at the
level of States and Union Territories. The SDGs have brought the focus on
development-related outcomes and not just financial expenditure and physical
progress.
This workshop was held at the heels of a new partnership between the UT and
NITI Aayog. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir and NITI Aayog, in technical
partnership with UNDP, have entered into an agreement to establish a Sustainable
Development Goals Coordination Centre (SDGCC) at the Planning, Development &
Monitoring Department. This partnership will seek to strengthen the monitoring
system of the state, derive actionable insights from data analytics, promote gap-
based targeting and build capacities.
The consultation in Jammu included sessions by NITI Aayog on the Indian
model of SDG localisation, national and UT indicator framework by MoSPI, sharing
of best practices on the adoption of the SDG framework by Gujarat, Uttarakhand,
Haryana and Punjab, and on aligning budgets to SDGs.
Secretary, PD&MD briefed the gathering that J&K has been a frontrunner UT
scoring better than many States/UT's in majority of sectors like health, agriculture
production, education, renewable energy, providing civic amenities, enhancing
forest cover, and ensuring gender equality esp during the last two years.
Dr Raghav Langer, Administrative Secretary thanked the Chief Secretary for
his valuable insights and guiding the UT on the journey towards fulfilment of SDG's.
He also thanked senior Administrative Secretaries, DG Planning PMCE/PFD, DG
E&S, DG Budget and other senior officers of the Planning Department for their
interactive participation in the workshop.
Satvir Kour, Director General, Economics and Statistics, J&K presented Vote
of Thanks to the speakers and participants alike.
