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Arunachal Plan pegged at Rs 1,100 crores

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Annual Plan for Arunachal Pradesh for 2006-07 was fixed at Rs. 1,100 crores at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and the State Chief Minister, Gegong Apang, here on Thursday.

During the discussion, Dr Ahluwalia pointed out that states such as Arunachal Pradesh would be the biggest beneficiary of the Centre's new initiatives. He said that Arunachal, owing to its poor infrastructure and geographical position, would immensely benefit from programmes such as `Bharat Nirman', the rural health mission, the employment guarantee scheme and `Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.'

Moreover, the North-Eastern states, Dr Ahluwalia said, were likely to benefit further as efforts were on to further improve on the special package for the region. The Prime Minister, he said, was also very keen to speed up the development process in the entire region and a great deal of emphasis would be placed on making Bharat Nirman a success.

The Commission also asked the Arunachal Government to evolve participatory family-based planning at all levels. Attention was also drawn to the fall in its development expenditure and lack of adequate health facilities. It was suggested that emphasis should be given to developing tourism specific infrastructure on a priority basis.

The Commission committed its full support in early completion of the airport in Itanagar.

The Chief Minister, on his part, pleaded for special consideration for Arunachal while enforcing criteria for development schemes. Mr. Apang pointed out that the State was passing through a very difficult situation as the growing fiscal gap had put a severe strain on its economy, especially when the regulatory measures had failed to protect the economy from extreme difficulties like debt servicing.

The State, he noted, was facing an annual burden of over Rs. 200 crores as debt servicing liability alone.

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