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Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
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NDC endorses XI Plan draft

Ashok Dasgupta

A plan for the poor and it doesn’t divide people: Manmohan

It envisages average nine per cent growth
Ahluwalia: Chief Ministers hailed growth targets but felt measures were not “inclusive enough”

NEW DELHI: The National Development Council (NDC), the country’s highest policy making body, on Wednesday endorsed the Eleventh Plan document. It envisages an average nine per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth in the first four years and a growth of 10 per cent during the terminal year 2011-12.

Briefing journalists after the conclusion of the day-long meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said: “The NDC has blessed the Eleventh Plan document. It is now time for its implementation, and that would be reflected in the annual Plan discussions with the States.”

With an overall investment of Rs.36,00,000 crore, the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) has been fixed nearly 115 per cent higher at Rs.10 lakh crore to help the States in ushering in “inclusive” growth through the development of social infrastructure such as health, education and eradication of poverty by generating more jobs.

For this, the Plan has specific national and State-level targets to help in monitoring the progress of the various social sector programmes.

In all, 27 targets have been proposed at the national and 13 at the State level for poverty eradication, education, health status of women and children, infrastructure and environment. The incidence of poverty is to be reduced by 10 percentage points by generating seven crore new jobs, while electricity connection is to be ensured to all villages.

Inclusive growth

Dr. Ahluwalia pointed out that while the Chief Ministers hailed the growth targets, they felt that the measures proposed to be adopted for inclusive growth were not “inclusive enough.” While some sought specific steps for increased irrigation, others pointed to the difficulties being faced in implementing projects through the public-private partnership route.

Responding to the Chief Ministers’ observations, Dr. Singh, in his concluding remarks, announced a number of steps aimed removing such hurdles. Noting that the country was close to living up to its full potential and that all the constraints and challenges were internal, he said each speaker (Chief Minister) “only reaffirmed my belief that all of us share a common concern about the welfare of our citizens and are in agreement that inclusive economic development is a national goal. …Launching of a Plan is only the beginning of a process.”

While the Plan tried to maximise investment in priority sectors such as agriculture, irrigation, rural development, education and health, “there is a general desire for more resources. … However, we must realise that the resource cake is a limited one.”

Task force on irrigation

On the issues raised by the Chief Ministers, Dr. Singh said there was a feeling that more resources were needed to speed up irrigation projects. To this end, he announced the constitution of a task force in the Planning Commission to examine the resource needs for expanding irrigation and identifying a new approach to implementation.

On agricultural indebtedness, he said: “The Finance Minister, in consultation with the Agriculture Minister, is finalising a scheme for addressing the issue of debt burden of farmers” in keeping with the report of the Radhakrishna Committee.

On the clearance of projects delayed due to cumbersome procedures, Dr. Singh said he would request the Finance Minister to set up an expert group to go into the system of statutory clearances for industrial and infrastructure projects and suggest concrete ways for speeding these up.

To ward off criticism on development plans on the basis of religion, Dr. Singh said: “This Plan is a plan for the poor. Its focus is on the most marginalised sections of society. The goal of this Plan is to invest in our people to enable them to become active participants in economic growth process. The Plan does not attempt to divide people on the basis of caste, creed or gender or religion.”

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