NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) disagrees with the Planning Commission's approach paper for the Eleventh Five Year Plan, saying it does not reflect the priorities the United Progressive Alliance Government had placed on employment generation and farm sector. Instead it had laid emphasis on achievement of target growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent.

Releasing a nine-page critique of the approach paper it had submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and to Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat said the party would prepare an alternative Plan paper.

``They [Planning Commission] have invited opinion and called for a debate in the run-up to the final draft Plan. It is not unusual for our party to come up with alternative proposals; we had done so in the past,'' Mr. Karat told correspondents here on Sunday.

The document noted that problems of unemployment and poverty could not be solved only through achievement of higher growth rate.

To chart out a trajectory of ``more inclusive growth,'' as suggested by the title of the approach paper, the party said it was necessary to reorient the planning approach and clearly define the social goals by having targets with regard to employment, poverty reduction and social sector achievements.

``GDP growth should be considered as a means to expand employment, alleviate poverty and improve social sector indicators, than being viewed as an objective in itself,'' the document said. Acceleration of average GDP growth to around 7 per cent during the Tenth Plan from around 5.5 per cent during the previous Plan has neither made a dent on unemployment nor accelerated the pace of poverty reduction.

Suggestions

The document has come out with suggestions on public investment, employment generation, agrarian crisis, food security and stability of essential commodity prices, scrapping the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM), bringing international treaties and free trade agreements for ratification by Parliament and National Development Council, private-public partnership, questions on user charges for education and health services, discouraging export of minerals and liberalisation of mining sector.

The document cautioned against financial sector liberalisation, favours gender equality, and advises against giving a free run to civil society organisations in overseeing the implementation of plans.

The document noted that the investment-GDP ratio at 27.5 per cent has fallen short of the 28.4 per cent target of the Tenth Plan and points out that underperformance was on account of lower rate of public investment.

While pointing out that the Plan panel paper seemed to continue with a similar approach, it said the central public sector undertakings holding profits should be reinvigorated to undertake massive capital expenditure, if necessary, by diversifying their activities.

The document says that the ``misplaced belief'' that labour market flexibility would lead to greater employment generation in the manufacturing sector should be abandoned. There was a need to work out employment generation targets to reduce unemployment, with specific provision for social security for unorganised sectors.

The plan projections, it said, does not have any strategy to ensure its assumption that GDP in agriculture would grow at a faster rate of 4 per cent.

``Unbridled entry'' of corporate players and promotion of contract farming could have further adverse impact on the peasantry.

The way out of the agrarian crisis could not be found unless the centrality of State interventions was recognised and the Eleventh Plan specified steps to provide debt relief and bring down interest rate on farm loans, it said.

``The FRBM Act should be scrapped, as it makes no sense to put a ceiling either on the fiscal deficit or on the revenue deficit in the Indian context...fiscal responsibility cannot be enforced through meaningless formulae which puts bizarre constraints on necessary and desirable revenue spending and does not allow anti-cyclic fiscal stances,'' the document said.

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