The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Call for judicious management of resources

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Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

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Call for judicious management of resources

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, SEPT. 15. The first meeting of the Economic Policy and Reforms Council (EPRC) -- appointed by the Rajasthan Government as its "think tank'' -- ended here today with the call for judicious management of resources and new initiatives in the fields of human resource development, infrastructure, investment and finance.

The two-day meeting was attended by a battery of experts from various sectors appointed as the Council's members and the deliberations centred around the steps for accelerating economic growth of the desert State with the emphasis on creating employment potential. The participants favoured identification of regional strengths to promote capacities in different areas.

The Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje -- who is also the Chairperson of EPRC -- briefing newspersons at the end of the meeting, said the State Government would evolve some concrete plans and formulate proposals by December this year to implement some of the significant recommendations made by the Council's members.

Ms. Raje said the EPRC's sub-groups had suggested value addition to services, encouragement to public-private partnership in key areas, better urban-rural connectivity, audit on quality of education, promotion of knowledge technology and "hard decisions'' in the power sector. "We intend to study each recommendation in detail and evolve our plan of action,'' she added.

While calling upon the Council's members to act as the "'brand ambassadors'' of Rajasthan to attract investments to the State, Ms. Raje presented a vision document in the meeting setting six ideals for ensuring people's welfare, development of infrastructure and expansion of economic activities. The Chief Minister pointed out that the vision goals of her Government included elimination of hunger and malnutrition, providing gainful employment, creation of economic infrastructure, filling up social infrastructure gaps, enhancing governance and taking special care of the disadvantaged. Rajasthan faced the problems of hunger and malnutrition mainly due to recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall and fragile environment, said Ms. Raje. In this regard, the State Government has already taken up works pertaining to water conservation, development of small, rural and agro-industries and diversification of tourism industry.

The Vice-Chairman of EPRC and former Deputy Chief Minister, Harishankar Bhabhra, affirmed that the experts had made the recommendations on a "scientific basis'', requiring concerted efforts for implementation. "The development plans emanating here are above all political considerations and will be implemented in a time-bound manner with people's cooperation,'' he said.

The EPRC's members who attended the meeting included K. Kasturirangan, Naina Lal Kidwai, V.S. Vyas, Swati Piramal, Rajendra S. Pawar, Yogesh Deveshwar and R.S. Nirjhar.

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