Jorhat (Assam): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted on Friday that the northeastern state has emerged as a model of development in the country, attributing it to “transparent and efficient” governance.

Sarma said his government was committed to building a “new Assam” on the back of “significant” strides in several sectors over the past three years, including infrastructure development, healthcare and education.

He was speaking after the launch of a series of initiatives for Jorhat district, spanning across sectors like education, industries and commerce and public enterprises, revenue and disaster management, and finance.

The launch was part of the government’s ‘12 Days of Development’ programme, which started on Wednesday.

The CM said the Assam government has been focusing on transparency and merit-based recruitment, ensuring that even children from disadvantaged families have access to government jobs.

Sarma said as part of ‘12 Days of Development’ initiative, the education department has come up with three schemes to provide substantial benefits to students.

Initiatives under the other departments will also directly benefit millions of people across the state in the near future, he said.

The chief minister said more than 10 lakh families are expected to be impacted by these measures.

During the programme, Sarma launched the ceremonial distribution of ‘no dues certificate’ under the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme to ‘Category-III, Phase-II’ borrowers, amounting to Rs 223.30 crore.

Under the revenue and disaster management department, Sarma disbursed Rs 35.38 crore to 6,86,487 families.

He also presented seed capital as part of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme. Under the programme, 6,490 members of SHGs amounting to Rs 21.90 crore have been provided.

Later, the CM performed ‘bhumi pujan’ and laid the foundation stone for the Jorhat Urban Water Supply Scheme, facilitating safe drinking water to people in the district.

The Drink from Tap (DFT) project will involve a financial outlay of Rs 220 crore, which will “ensure clean and uninterrupted water supply by leveraging advanced technology and modern infrastructure”.

The project will cover 14,700 households and the target date of completion is December 2026, officials said.