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New Delhi, August 01, 2005 Annual Plan of Goa for the year 2005-2006 has been approved in a meeting between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Chief Minister of Goa Shri Pratapsingh Rane, here today. The Annual Plan size for Goa was agreed at Rs.1025 crores which includes additional Central assistance of Rs.6 crore for schemes of special importance to the State. The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, complimented the State for excellent economic social and demographic indicators such as high per capita income, high literacy, low population growth rate, good law and order and power surplus. He said the State has achieved high growth rate of 8.7 per cent per annum during 1994-2002. While lauding the farm sector initiatives for market linkages, floriculture development, soil conservation and employment generation, Shri Ahluwalia called for promotion of bio-fertilizers, high value agriculture and horticulture, and expeditious completion of the on-going irrigation projects. He also underlined the need to market Goa as a major holiday destination on the lines of ASEAN countries and promote hinterland tourism. Shri Pratapsingh Rane informed the Commission that the financial position of State was improving. Non-tax revenue during the last three years is growing at 22 per cent and tax revenue during the same period has gone up by 13 per cent. He said BCR was positive and interest payment was at 21 percent of total revenue receipt. He said the State was aiming at providing gainful employment through increased emphasis on agriculture, industry and tourism. Efforts were on to provide quality education and improved governance through IT. He also raised the issue of Central assistance under the formula-based assistance. He appealed that good performance of the State should not reduce allocation to the State from the Central funding. ^^ Top . New Delhi, May 19, 2005 Annual Plan size for Haryana for the year 2005-06 was approved today at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The Plan outlay for 2005-06 was agreed at Rs.3000 crore. This includes onetime additional Central assistance of Rs.25 crore provided for specific projects of special interest to the State. The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, complimented the State Government for a consistent growth performance during the first three years of the Tenth Plan. He said the contribution of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors has been satisfactory. The Strategic measures for fiscal and structural reforms are broadly in the right direction. Attention was drawn to adverse sex ratio of 820, which is far below the all-India average of 933 females to every 1000 males. The State Government was advised to create awareness and reach to community and household levels. Agriculture diversification was recommended as a strategy to accelerate agriculture growth. This should include shift from cereal to non-cereal and move beyond crop agriculture to animal husbandry, dairy and fishery. Attention was also drawn to shrinking forest cover, which has come down from 3.8 per cent in 1993-94 to 2.18 percent in 1999. State was also asked to train self-help groups on priority and help them in capacity building. Concern was also drawn on over exploitation of ground water resources The Chief Minister briefed the Commission on reform initiatives adopted recently. He said the staffing pattern in government departments is being constantly reviewed, PSUs are being rationalized and complete transparency in fiscal operations has been introduced. The irrigation system has been rehabilitated and modernized and a new education policy launched. High priority has been given to education, health, drinking water, urban development, employment generation, welfare of SCs and BCss and an outlay of Rs 1400 crore has been earmarked. New industrial policy has been formulated to augment infrastructure facilities so as to attract foreign and private industries. He said the new policy to be launched shortly, would help in generating employment opportunities in private sector and also encourage self-employment. He said road networks surrounding Delhi needs to be strengthened He requested for Central support in funding the land acquisition cost for the construction of Western periphery expressway, Early approval of the Delhi- Gurgaon integrated rail cum bus transit project was also requested. ^^ Top . New Delhi, April 21, 2005 Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force for Long-term Social & Economic Development of Jammu & Kashmir, has said that efforts through accelerated development activities are needed to reach a sustainable solution to the multi-dimensional problems of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking at the First Meeting of the Task Force, he said the Task Force would work towards creating an environment favourable for public/private partnership as principal mode for promoting economic activity. The Task Force has decided to prepare status papers on the transfer of Salal hydro electric project from NHPC to the J&K government, tapping available hydel potential, providing forward and backward linkages to the artisan sector, horticulture development, improving connectivity and expanding health coverage. The Task Force proposes to give its interim report to the Prime Minister in six months. The recommendations would include strategy to improve infrastructure, tourism and creation of employment opportunity. It is of the view that coordinated and efficient use of funds flowing into the State was necessary for sustainable development. Shri Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; Shri Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max India Ltd; Shri Haseeb Drabu, Economic Adviser, Govt. of J&K; Shri T. N. Tahkur, CMD, PTC India Ltd; and Dr. Subba Rao were among the Members of the Task Force present at today’s meeting. Shri Sanjay Mitra, Joint Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office, also attended the meeting. ^^ Top . New Delhi, April 07, 2005 The Annual Plan for Andhra Pradesh for the year 2005-2006 was finalized here today at a meeting between Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The Plan outlay was agreed at Rs.15650.77 crores. This includes one time Central assistance of Rs.134.33 crores for projects of special importance to the State. The Deputy Chairman complimented the State for overall performance and particularly for substantially reducing population below poverty line by focused distribution of subsidized food grains. He also appreciated the State for focused attention to irrigation but pointed out that prioritization of projects was necessary to ensure time bound results. State’s efforts towards power sector management were also appreciated. Mr. Ahluwalia said that Central support towards food for work programme and backward region grant fund to be operationalized shortly, could be better utilized for water management in under developed regions of the State. He said State should work towards efficient use of electricity and further strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions. Industrialization should be promoted by continuing with cluster development approach and infrastructure building. The State was also advised to promote public private partnership in road and port sectors. Members of the Commission drew attention of the State towards slowing down of State GDP and particularly growth in the agriculture sector. The State was also advised to evolve a more practical water management policy and pay more focused attention to dry land farming. The Chief Minister pointed out that his government was giving top priority to the development of rural areas and reducing regional imbalance. Agriculture and allied areas were on the priority list of the government. Projects are already in the pipeline to increase irrigation potential in Telengana Region by 35 lakh acres during the next four years. In the power sector efforts are on to improve efficiency by reducing T & D losses. Budgetary allocation towards rural development has been increased by 25 per cent this year and primary health centers throughout the State are being strengthened. Water conservation programmes have been taken up in the eight districts being covered under food for work programme. ^^ Top . New Delhi, March 16, 2005 The Planning Commission has introduced State specific web pages in its website to make available all possible information on individual States to the public. With the new changes in the format all information available in the Planning Commission on individual States viz; Outlay / Expenditure, State Development Reports, topical studies, Backward Districts, and links to the State Government’s own official website are available on these specially created pages. Since its inception, the Planning Commission has created, distilled and codified a wealth of knowledge related to planning and development in the State of India. Under a recent effort, this rich knowledge has been reorganized State-wise and made available in the form of State-specific web pages. These pages can be readily accessed from the India map on the homepage of the Planning Commission website : www.planningcommission .nic.in. This initiative shall ensure that this wealth of knowledge on each State is available online to important users, including people’s representatives, Government officials, students, researchers and common citizens. The Commission proposes to further improve the website on the basis of response from the users. ^^ Top . New Delhi, March 03, 2005 The Plan outlay for Maharashtra for the year 2005-06 was finalized at a meeting, here today, between the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh. The Annual Plan size was agreed at Rs.11000 crore. This includes additional Central assistance of Rs.160 crore for completion of important irrigation projects. The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia complimented the State for commendable growth performance. He said the social indicators are also better than the national average with birth rate at 20.3 and death rate of 7.3 against national average of 25 and 8.1 respectively. He said the State was well poised to reach total fertility rate of 2.1by the end of Tenth Plan. The literacy rate has also gone up from 64.8 per cent in 1991 to 77.27 percent in 2001. Attention was drawn to substantial slippage in Plan expenditure due to increase in non-plan expenditure and shortfall in resource mobilization. It was pointed out that the State is facing severe fiscal stress with fiscal deficit at 4 per cent in 2001-02 and revenue deficit at 3.08 per cent during the same period. Plan expenditure was only 9 per cent of total expenditure against the all-State average of 25 per cent. The State was advised to promote industrialization in backward and naxalite-affected districts. Member Planning Commission Shri Mungekar said the State should continue to lead in the economic development and live up to its reputation. The development pattern has to be reviewed to reduce regional imbalance and focused attention should be given for developing fisheries and tourism. Attention was also drawn to the large number of irrigation projects waiting completion and growing demand supply gap in the power sector. The Planning Commission agreed to take up with Finance Ministry the issue of discriminatory rate of interest being charged on borrowings from NSSF. The State Government pointed out that they are required to pay 9.5 per cent interest rate while Centre was paying much lesser. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra pointed out that after the set back in 2000-01 the State economy is growing continuously at impressive rate and for the current year a growth rate of 7 per cent was expected. He said the Human Development Index was showing upward trend and social sector expenditure of the State was highest. He said the shortfall in Plan expenditure was primarily because of massive expenditure of Rs.1499 crore on relief programmes in districts severely affected by unprecedented drought. Fiscal stress due to increasing debt service burden and failure to raise money from market were other contributors. He sought Central assistance in addressing slum problem of Mumbai and pointed out that about Rs.2000 crore would be required additionally to provide civic amenities and shelter assistance to slums. Under the slum rehabilitation scheme 26,610 tenements have already been constructed while another 11000 are under various stages of completion. He said the State Government was working towards removing the regional backlog and has been directed by the Governor to allot Rs.8566 crore for removal of regional imbalance. He said a provision of Rs.1400 crore has been made but meeting the entire requirement was beyond budgetary capacity of the State Government. He said the State Government was in the process of setting up Maharashtra Water Resource Regulatory Authority and also the enact Maharashtra management of irrigation systems by farmer’s act and efforts were on to complete on-going irrigation projects at the earliest. ^^ Top |
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