Gujarat underperforms in education sector: Plan panel

New Delhi: Punching holes in the claims of state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a Planning Commission working paper said that Gujarat has underperformed in health and education sectors. According to a Planning Commission's paper on 'Refining State Level Comparisons in India', "Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have each underperformed in two of the three sectors analysed."

The working paper 2012 series has analysed the performance of the states in three sectors - health, education and infrastructure. As per the paper, the only sector in which Gujarat has done well is infrastructure. It further said that the good performers include Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. "These states have been the best performers across the all sectors," it stated.

The laggards, according to the paper, include Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand across these three sectors.

Modi, the newly appointed campaign committee chief of the Bharatiya Janta Party for the 2014 General Elections, has been propagating the Gujarat model of development and his party wants it to be replicated across the country.