— Photo: S. Mahinsha

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia greets Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan at the Regional Consultation Meeting, organised by the Planning Commission in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Pondicherry Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy, Kerala Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac and Kerala State Planning Board Vice Chairman Prabhat Patnaik are also seen.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is broad consensus among the States on the draft Approach Paper for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, which outlines programmes and policies for achieving an average annual growth rate of 8.5 per cent in the country during the Eleventh Plan period, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here on Friday.

Kerala is hosting the last of the Regional Consultations the Planning Commission has called across the country to gather the views of the States on the draft paper here on Friday and Saturday. The southern States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry are attending the meeting, besides Kerala. Except Tamil Nadu, where Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is busy with the State budget coming up shortly, all other States are represented at the meeting by their Chief Ministers.

Briefing presspersons after the first day's session, Dr. Ahluwalia said a growth rate of 8.5 per cent was widely perceived achievable by the country, given the support of policies that could make it possible. The draft Approach Paper also targets doubling growth in agriculture to four per cent from the level of two per cent in recent years. The focus on agriculture is to tackle the problem of rural poverty and ensure a more equitable distribution of the fruits of growth.

Among the States, Kerala presented a divergent view. Its argument was that the nature of growth was more important than how high the growth rate was. Dr. Ahluwalia said the Planning Commission had no differences with Kerala on this subject and the effort during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan would be to ensure high growth rate and growth distributed equitably across the country and across all areas within each State.

Kerala's argument was that the type of growth being targeted might sometimes not address the task of job generation and poverty alleviation. "We are of the view that only high growth rate could generate quality jobs. Generating jobs without growth may not be the solution for poverty," Dr. Ahluwalia said.

He said the Indian industry had very high level managerial skills and was fully equipped to fight global competition, but for the shortcomings in infrastructure facilities such as ports, roads, power etc. In agriculture, the problem was that the extension services had collapsed in the recent years. "There is knowledge deficit in farm activities in the country. Agriculture extension service needs to be revamped totally," he said.

He said the Planning Commission hoped to finalise the Approach Paper for the Eleventh Plan by mid-September, after incorporating the suggestion from the States and also inputs from individuals and groups.

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