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Azad: Plan document failed to address unemployment

SRINAGAR: At Wednesday’s National Development Council meeting, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hit out at the Centre for not addressing the core issue of unemployment in XI Plan document.

“Even as there was a lot of discussion on the Plan, employment was not central or intrinsic to the Plan formation,” he said. A strategic thrust and policy intervention were somewhat missing. “There does not seem to be a clear-cut strategy for employment generation, as there is, for instance, for growth in output.”

There was need for exploring the possibility of using monetary policy for employment generation. The way the monetary policy was being conducted now, the costs of fighting inflation were turning out to be high.

Mr. Azad stressed the need for modifying the financing pattern of all Centrally-sponsored schemes for special-category States to require them to contribute only 10 per cent of the cost as their share. This would help them take full advantage of these schemes within the constraints of their resources.

Citing the example of Jammu and Kashmir, where development of a road network in far-flung and hilly areas was about 10 times higher than the plains, the Chief Minister said much headway could not be made under Bharat Nirman as the scheme did not provide the cost for land acquisition. “There may be a case for making a special dispensation in this regard for Jammu and Kashmir.” “State governments should not become mere implementing agencies of the Central plan or centrally-sponsored schemes.” They “have to concentrate and deliver on their own State plans and district plans ... We have to ensure that we strike a balance somewhere so that the specific local needs of a State are met...”

“We have seen that the ‘free plan resources’ available to the States have been shrinking during the 10th Five-Year Plan [period]. There is a real danger that this trend will get accentuated further.”

Mr. Azad said: “In the prevailing cycle of high growth and high unemployment, RBI ought to choose employment targeting as a subject to devise a set of monetary policy instruments to achieve the target.” The single most important thing to differentiate “inclusive growth” from its earlier avatars of “growth with equity” would be the use of monetary policy measures for creating employment.

“This is perhaps the first Five-Year Plan formulated by the Centre, the success of which almost entirely depends on the States. While I think it is a good development, the problem is that in many States, including Jammu and Kashmir, the institutional capability to spend this kind of money is not very high. It is, therefore, necessary to start right from today the process of institutional capacity building and institutional reforms.

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Azad: Plan document failed to address unemployment

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