The Hindu : New Delhi News : State annual Plan size fixed at Rs.7,700 crore

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Thursday, Jan 10, 2008
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State annual Plan size fixed at Rs.7,700 crore

Special Correspondent

It includes an additional Central aid of Rs.100 crore

Photo: V. Sudershan

Plan matters: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan calls on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Wednesday. Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac is also seen. —

NEW DELHI: Kerala’s annual Plan size for the coming fiscal has been fixed at Rs.7,700 crore.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting between Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia here on Wednesday. The outlay includes an additional Central assistance of Rs.100 crore.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Mr. Achuthanandan said Kerala was the first State of the country to have finalised its Plan for 2008-09. The Plan has registered a 10.8 per cent increase over the outlay for the current fiscal.

The Plan size minus the additional Central assistance is just Rs.5 crore short of the proposal submitted by the State. It had sought an outlay of Rs.7,605 crore. ‘Modest’ in size, the State government’s contention was that it had made a deliberate attempt to keep the Plan lean, trim and ‘hence more meaningful.’

Sector-wise allocations

The allocation for agriculture has been increased by 8 per cent. The outlay for industry has gone up from Rs.107 crore to Rs.220 crore. The social services sector will get Rs.1,554 crore and local self-governments Rs.1,877 crore. The outlay for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes welfare has been raised by Rs.36 crore.

Besides, a provision has been made for food security and Rs.50 crore allocated to the Debt Relief Commission which has been set up to help distressed farmers and revive food grain economy. The government will set up a land bank to thwart speculators and prevent forcible/fraudulent dispossession of land from people. This is a step towards putting in place a regime of social control over land use.

During the discussions, Mr. Ahluwalia said the Commission wanted to see better utilisation of funds under Centrally sponsored schemes. The Commission wanted to work in tandem with the State government to remove rigidity in the guidelines of these schemes. Appreciative of Kerala’s efforts to maintain fiscal discipline while improving Plan performance, he said the State should work towards providing better infrastructure for higher education, skill development and tourism.

Fiscal squeeze

For his part, the Chief Minister said the fiscal squeeze imposed during the Tenth Plan had had detrimental effects on all development sectors, particularly social sectors such as education and health. The fiscal crisis, according to him, had crippled the ability of the State to cope with the impact of the agrarian crisis and ‘the crisis of petty production,’ resulting in a spate of peasant suicides.

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