The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Centre urged to share cost of developing backward taluks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 22, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Centre urged to share cost of developing backward taluks

Special Correspondent

Kumaraswamy addresses meet on draft approach paper for 11th Plan

SAYING HELLO: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (right) greeting his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, at the Regional Consultation organised by the Planning Commission in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. V.S. Achuthanandan and N. Ranga swamy, Chief Ministers of Kerala and Pondicherry respectively, are seen. — Photo: S. Mahinsha

Bangalore: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has urged the Centre to share the funding of the State's special development plan to develop backward taluks identified by a committee headed by the late D.M. Nanjundappa, set up in 2001.

He was addressing the Regional Consultation on the draft approach paper for the 11th Five-Year Plan, organised by the Planning Commission in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan were present at the meeting.

Regional disparities

According to a copy of his speech released here, Mr. Kumaraswamy said there were a lot of regional disparities in Karnataka, which had to be set right. The Nanjundappa committee had classified 114 of the 175 taluks in the State as backward, of which 39 were termed most backward. In order to set right the imbalances, the committee had submitted a Rs.16,000-crore special development plan to be implemented over an eight-year period.

The Chief Minister said the State had been requesting the Centre to "co-finance" this special development plan. "Although Karnataka is rightly known as forward looking, progressive and strongly development-oriented and has registered an average growth rate of about seven per cent in the GSDP during the last few years, it still continues to be in the league of middle-income States." This is obviously due to regional imbalances, he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy also made a strong plea for financial assistance for the development of Bangalore's infrastructure. Cities such as Bangalore, which had made Brand India universally recognised, should receive substantial assistance. Individual States, which promoted information technology, did not even get incentives for IT-led exports, he said.

About the 8.5 per cent growth rate projected by the Planning Commission during the 11th Plan period, he said Karnataka was confident of raising the resources to achieve the targeted growth. But the plan must give high priority to identifying efficiency-promoting policies in critical areas such as irrigation, electricity and water supply.

The Plan approach paper should also address the issue of expanding women's employment in the secondary and the tertiary sectors by improving their access to education and improving their skill base.

Referring to the road network, Mr. Kumaraswamy said a policy change could be considered under which State roads would be upgraded to the standard of national highways and reclassified. Such a national policy would substantially increase the length of national highways in the country without any additional expenditure to the Centre towards capital cost, he added.

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