Dehradun: Uttarakhand’s economy has taken a leap. The state gross domestic product is estimated to be Rs 3.78 lakh crore in the year 2024-25. At the same time, the growth rate is estimated to be 6.61 percent. Per capita annual income has also increased from Rs 2.46 lakh to Rs 2.74 lakh. Planning Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram gave this information in a press conference.
GEP cell will take shape in Uttarakhand in the new financial year
In environmentally sensitive Uttarakhand, whether the health of the four main components of the environment, forest, air, soil and water, has improved or declined in the last two years, it will be known when the GEP index is released this year. In this connection, the GEP cell will take shape in the new financial year.
Whether it will be formed under the Environment Directorate or the Pollution Control Board, it will be decided in the high level meeting to be held next week. According to sources, after the formation of the cell, it will work hard to prepare the state’s GEP index.
Uttarakhand is the first state in the country, which is also assessing GEP (Gross Environmental Product) along with GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In July last year, in collaboration with HESCO (Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization), the state had released the state’s GEP index based on the index of the four major components of the environment – air, soil, water and forest.
In this, the state’s GEP index was estimated at 0.95 percent on the basis of the steps taken to conserve the ecology by the year 2022, taking the data of the year 2020 as the focal point. Then it was decided to release the state’s GEP index every two years in the same way. Along with this, the Chief Minister had given instructions to form a GEP cell for this.
Not only this, special emphasis was laid on preparing an effective action plan for the conservation and enhancement of the main components of the environment on the basis of the GEP index. Now in view of all this, efforts have started for the formation of the GEP cell. Although, work is already going on as an environment cell in the Pollution Control Board.
In such a situation, emphasis was laid on the formation of the GEP cell under the board, but the opinion also emerged that this subject should be handed over to the Environment Directorate. Due to all this, the matter of formation of the cell was stuck.
Sources said that now a high-level meeting is proposed at the government level regarding the GEP cell next week. In this, it will be decided under whom this cell will be formed. Then the cell will start its work by deploying experts and personnel.
