As many as 7 districts of Uttar Pradesh have found a place in the top 10 best-performing aspirational districts in the 'delta ranking' released by NITI Aayog for the month of August 2021.

As many as 112 districts across the country have been included in the NITI Aayog's 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' Programme which is assessed based on incremental progress made across 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under 5 broad socio-economic themes – health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development and infrastructure.

The districts namely, Siddhartha Nagar, Bahraich, Sonbhadra, Shravasti, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot and Chandauli have been placed in the top-10 districts.

The ranking was released by NITI Aayog through its real-time monitoring dashboard.

The delta ranking signifies the efforts undertaken by the state government and the respective district magistrates to develop and improve the under-developed districts.

Fatehpur, working on the set standards of NITI Aayog, has achieved second place in the field of development in the whole country, followed by Siddhartha Nagar at the third place, Sonbhadra at fourth, Chitrakoot at fifth, Bahraich at seventh, Shravasti at eighth and Chandauli at ninth position.

Among the aspirational districts of Uttar Pradesh, Chitrakoot and Bahraich have excelled on the standards of NITI Aayog.

As a result, the NITI Aayog has allocated an additional budget to these districts for development works.

It is worth mentioning here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Aspirational Districts Programme in January 2018 as part of the government's effort to raise the living standards of its citizens and ensure inclusive growth for all, 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Vishwas'. The programme aims at the development of backward districts.

The ranking of aspirational districts is done every month. (IANS/JB)

Keywords: NITI Aayog, India, Cities, Uttar Pradesh, Narendra Modi.