The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Row affects plan process

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Sunday, Jun 15, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Row affects plan process

N.J. Nair

Scheme for agriculture sector

Conflict between Agriculture department, LSGIs
Plan formulation in Thiruvananthapuram has come to a halt

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The conflict between Agriculture and Local Administration departments is impeding the plan preparation for the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) in the State.

Already the plan formulation in Thiruvananthapuram district has come to a halt. Agriculture Department officials are understood to have prepared the district plan without taking the local self-government institutions (LSGIs) and District Planning Committee into confidence. There are complaints that the process was reduced to a routine bureaucratic exercise and the plan was drawn up without any consultations with the LSGIs which implement the Centrally-sponsored schemes in the State.

Annual growth

The RKVY calls for a holistic approach for developing agriculture and allied sectors with a special accent on registering four per cent annual growth in the farming sector during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period.

It seeks to encourage convergence at all levels, especially an integrated functioning of the Agriculture and Local Administration departments to get the optimum results.

The government has to submit a State plan and 14 district agriculture plans which cover all available resources including those created by the Centrally-sponsored schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, Backward Region Grant Fund and Bharat Nirman.

This means, the plans should be formulated in consultation with the LSGIs which are the main implementing agencies.

“Since RKVY is conditional to proper District Planning and since [the] Planning Commission has already circulated guidelines for the District Planning in line with Constitutional requirements, these requirements should be adhered to by the State as far as possible,” the guidelines say.

District plans

It has also been specified that the district plans should not be the usual aggregation of the existing schemes but should aim at projecting the requirements for developing agriculture and allied sectors. It should have an overall development perspective of the district.

There are complaints that the plan preparation has become a ritualistic exercise of the Agriculture Department in all the districts. The Thiruvananthapuram district plan has been cited as a case in point. The plan anticipates financial commitment to the tune of Rs.25 crore during the current financial year. It seeks Rs.1.2 crore for boosting paddy cultivation, Rs.1 crore for providing irrigation facilities and renovation of irrigation and drainage canals and Rs.1 crore for cutting and removal of diseased coconut palms and Rs.85 lakh for managing coconut yellowing disease. But for a passing mention about such endeavours, the plan does not provide details of a definitive course of action.

Guidelines

The guidelines say that “the plan preparation is an elaborate, exhaustive and iterative process and so every care should be taken by the State nodal department (Agriculture Department) and the district agriculture department officials in ensuring that the DAPs are properly made.” Though the guidelines specify that the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture will jointly examine the plans submitted by the governments in consultation with the Panchayati Raj Ministry, no end seems to be in sight to the departmental row.

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