The Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh has directed all the district magistrates to mark dark areas where the sex ratio is skewed in their respective districts. Special action plans should be drafted for such areas, the chief secretary stressed. Singh said this while presiding over a video-conference with all district magistrates to review the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme of the Women Empowerment and Child Development department here at the secretariat on Monday.
The Chief Secretary directed all the officers to ensure that work is done in all the districts according to the annual work plan. The dark areas where the imbalance in sex ratio is more should also be identified and a special action plan for such areas should be drafted. Special awareness programmes should also be undertaken to address this issue, he said. By introducing innovative means, programmes should be organised to encourage girls.
The chief secretary also stressed on the need for special efforts to remove imbalance in the sex ratio in Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh, Champawat and aspirational districts. Appreciating the efforts already being undertaken in various districts to address the problem of imbalanced sex ratio, the chief secretary stressed on more efforts to ensure that the targets are achieved in a time-bound manner. Secretary Sowjanya and women empowerment and child development director Jharna Kamthan along with other officials concerned were also present in the meeting.
