Gandhinagar, Dec 4 (IANS) The might of the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi will leave their state secretariat later Friday to set up camp in the Rann of Kutch for a four-day brainstorming session.
The ‘chintan shibir’ is an annual feature introduced by Modi and is held at different locations where the state’s CEO, his cabinet colleagues and the top bureaucracy stay together to jostle with problems that the straightjacket of rules may not permit in normal course.

The exotic locale this time is a tented township in the middle of nowhere. Like Rajasthan seeks to make a tourist spectacle of its cresting sand dunes turning it into a Jaisalmer extravaganza, Gujarat has identified Dordo, a rural hamlet in the sprawling salt-specked confines of the Rann of Kutch for a Rannotsav.

With the festival ending Friday, the tent city set up for tourists will house politicians and bureaucrats who will work to lay a roadmap for Gujarat’s development.

Since Chief Minister Modi and state Tourism Minister Jaynarayan Vyas are already camping in Kutch, the state cabinet and the bureaucracy — from the chief secretary to district collectors and district development officers — will maker their way to the venue in seven specially chartered luxury buses.

The dawn to dusk 500-km journey will be over a serpentine track.

The meet will be kicked off Friday evening with an inaugural address by Modi and will have former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Swami Subodhanandji as guest speakers on subsequent days. The intervening period will have group discussions, feedback sessions, policy and performance appraisals and presentations from the districts.

“Absolutely single and ready to mingle, the officialdom is expected to cut through the ribbons of hierarchy to engage in a free and frank discussion of the problems bedevilling day-to-day administration,” said a bureaucrat connected with the organising of the shibir.

According to the official spokesperson, the chief minister will carry the discussions forward informally through lunch every day while late evenings will be for cultural programmes.

The mornings will be ushered in with an hour-long yoga session at 6.30 a.m. and breakfast will also be tete-e-tete time with the chief minister joining in.

Peppering the proceedings will be discussions on 50 golden goals and 50 ’swarnim sankalps’ as Gujarat observes its 50th year of existence in 2010 on an unprecedented high scale. The shibir will conclude Dec 7.