REDEFINING PLANNING: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa greeting the World Bank Country Director, Michael F.Carter, at the launch of Tamil Nadu Equitable Growth Initiative in Chennai on Wednesday. V.S.Arunachalam, Vice-Chairman, State Planning Commission, l ooks on. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday launched the Tamil Nadu Equitable Growth Initiative, describing it as a "major step forward in redefining policy planning and governance in Tamil Nadu."

Said Ms. Jayalalithaa, "It fosters a composite vision of participatory development and freedom of choice which, I strongly believe, constitute the very raison d'etre of governance."

Pointing out that the initiative was a collaborative exercise involving the people and the Government, Ms. Jayalalithaa said civil society could articulate its core development concerns and explore solutions along with the Government. The World Bank had offered to share cross-country expertise and global best practices in this endeavour.

Noting that the State had notched up several achievements in human development, she said Tamil Nadu still had to contend with poverty. "While the State economy is in transition, from being predominantly agrarian to one that is led by rapid growth in the manufacturing and services sectors, the concomitant shift in cross-sectoral employment pattern has to be accelerated. Also, the inter-district disparities in human development within Tamil Nadu need to be corrected."

In transitional societies, the State should have an activist development role and it was the bounden duty of Governments to ensure the provision of basic services to the poor and the needy. "But, there is a caveat to this — unless we improve the service delivery mechanisms and make them responsive to public needs, the desired development outcomes will remain elusive," the Chief Minister said.

Listing several measures taken by her Government in the last four years, she said it had outlined outcome-oriented strategies for stepping up the growth momentum in the farm sector. The Government's "Second-Generation Reforms" in the manufacturing sector were now "yielding spectacular results." The Government had taken measures to streamline and upgrade the quality of health services. The State's capital investment outlay, "which had been stagnating for years," had increased almost three fold from Rs. 1,778 crores in 2001-02 to Rs. 4,792 crores in the current financial year.

State Planning Commission vice-chairman V.S. Arunachalam called for reducing the length of the supply chain and minimising transaction costs to improve the service delivery mechanism.

Michael F. Carter, Country Director, World Bank, described Tamil Nadu as one of the country's best performing States "with an impressive reform record and some remarkable achievements over the past four years."

Greater support

He called for greater support to small and medium enterprises and improving the quality of jobs in the unorganised sector.

The public financial management system and service orientation of government officials should be strengthened, Mr. Carter added.

Chief Secretary N. Narayanan said the initiative would enable the people concerned to come out with options that were feasible, without taking extreme positions.

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