The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Plan funds: Chandy disputes VS’ claims

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Plan funds: Chandy disputes VS’ claims

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy has come out against the State government’s tardy implementation of Plan projects.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Chandy questioned Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s claim of securing higher Plan allocation for 2008-09 given the failure of his government to implement Plan programmes for 2007-08, be it for agriculture, poverty eradication or local bodies’ allocation. He said he did not consider the Rs.7,700 crore Annual Plan size as something to feel proud about because implementation of the Plan was more important as it indicated the government’s efficiency and political will.

The State’s Annual Plan achievement in 2006-07 was just 68.23 per cent. This year the performance has dipped further with only 25.76 per cent of the targets achieved as on December 31, 2007. The worst part was that the utilisation of funds under the Centrally-sponsored schemes was a mere 27.85 per cent. The Local Self-Governments’ performance was dismal with only a 7.44 per achievement. The total allocation for the Local Self-Governments during the current year was Rs.1790 crore and the local bodies had spent only Rs.133.13 crore in the face of deliberate attempts to compress expenditure, Mr. Chandy said. Alleging that the LDF government had destroyed the credibility and sanctity of the Plan process, Mr. Chandy highlighted its failure in handling the crisis in the agriculture sector and poverty alleviation.

“The CPI (M) approach towards Plan implementation was against agriculture and small scale sectors and the poor,” he said.

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