11th PLAN DRAFT A PLOY TO APPEASE MUSLIMS

'11th Plan draft a ploy to appease Muslims'

Agencies

CENTRAL CHRONICLE

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

New Delhi, Dec 19: BJP - ruled states on Wednesday slammed

the draft 11th Plan document proposal for a 15-point

programme focusing on minorities, describing it as an

attempt to appease Muslims.

Criticising this proposal, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister

Shivraj Singh Chauhan said while addressing the meeting of

the National Development Council here the poor have no

caste or religion hence only the economic criteria should

be the basis for allocating funds for welfare schemes.

"This is an example of vote bank politics and it is being

done only to appease Muslims," Chauhan told reporters.

"Let me at the outset reiterate that we are firmly

committed to the socio-economic development of all the 5.5

crore people of Gujarat as provided in the Constitution of

India. However, the new 15-point programme focuses on

earmarking certain outlays of area development schemes and

programmes of government of India amongst the eligible

beneficiaries based on their minority status, which should

be reviewed in the interest of maintaining the social

fabric of the nation," Gujarat CM Narendra Modi said

Mr Chouhan made a fervent plea for greater resources to

make agriculture profitable, augmenting irrigation sources,

immediate enforcement of the Act for Tribal Rights,

increase in funds for infrastructure development, special

assistance for development of Bundelkhand region and

adequate funds for maintenance of National Highways.

Madhya Pradesh Minister for Finance Raghavji also attended

the meeting.

The CM said that the rural market constitutes merely 40 per

cent of the domestic demand though it represents 65 percent

of the population. For continuously expanding this market,

higher growth rate in agriculture is a must. Without

development of agriculture, which supports one-third

population of the country and 56 percent work force for

livelihood, the democratic support for economic reforms may

become weak. Agriculture being the main base of rural

economy, without adequate and continuous increase in

farmers' income, the market for industrial development will

also not grow at the required pace. Agriculture development

is also required for ensuring adequate supply of essentials

like food grains at reasonable rates for the common man, he

added.

To increase agricultural production and productivity the CM

stressed the need for rapid expansion of irrigation

facilities. He said that an investment of about Rs. 4 lakh

crore is required for a comprehensive development country's

water resources. At the current pace, it may take about 6

decades. The Council should decide to complete this

programme in ten years. The central and states should share

the investment equally. A comprehensive integrated

irrigation development project should be prepared for each

state. The major irrigation projects should be implemented

as National Projects. The CM said that the survey and

investigation of Madhya Pradesh' Ken-Betwa link project

should be expedited by National Water Development Agency so

that its implementation may be started as a National

Project in the 11th Plan, he said.

Referring to infrastructure, Chouhan said that the Backward

Region Grant Fund provides meagre resources, which are able

to address the intra-state infrastructure imbalances to a

limited extent only. This is woefully inadequate to address

the inter-state infrastructural imbalances. The bulk of the

private investments are going to the developed regions of

the country widening the disparity between states and

regions. Both central programmes for infrastructure

development and private development of industrial

infrastructure through SEZ are favouring developed regions.

This discrepancy must be removed.

The CM said that a very ambitious programme for development

of National Highways has been taken up but the Golden

Quadrilateral Project has virtually bypassed the backward

states. The prooposed express highways are also likely to

be located in the developed regions. The funds being

provided for the maintenance of National highways are

awfully inadequate. Therefore, states like MP are deprived

not only of the funds for upgradation of National Highways

but also for their proper maintenance. A piquant situation

exists in which Madhya Pradesh has high quality rural roads

and dilapidated National Highways adversely affecting the

investment climate for the state. The state has shown

willingness to take up upgradation of a few National

Highways in PPP mode, but the centre has expressed its

inability to provide even the cost of land acquisition, he

regretted.

The CM said that the railway's policy of taking up new

projects on cost sharing basis with states needs

reconsideration. Such an approach is not fair to the

backward states. The tribal areas lacking mineral resources

have failed to attract investment in rail projects for the

development of the local economics. Many of these districts

are experiencing left wing extremist violence.

Diversification of the local economy is a must for creating

job opportunities for the youth and for this rail

networking is a must. The railways should not ask for the

state's share in new rail projects for at least backward

districts included in BRGF.

Regarding increase in power generation capacity, the Chief

Minister said that substantial investment in system

upgradation is required to reduce losses and to bring down

tariff. The central government support for this should be

significantly stepped up for system upgradation.

While referring to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) the CM

said that the share of teachers' salary expenditure was

about 20 percent in the 10 Plan out of which one-fourth was

contributed by the state. If this component is removed from

SSA, this will effectively increase the states' share from

35 percent to 50 percent negating the consensus arrived at

regarding the increase in states' share in a phased manner,

he added. Regarding the proposal to reserve 75 percent post

of teachers being created in SSA-II for women, the CM said

that it needs serious reconsideration. There may be

practical problems in finding qualified candidates from the

local areas of these schools and therefore, these posts are

more likely to be filled up from candidates from urban

areas which would compund the problem of teacher

absenteeism. There is also the possibility that the posts

reserved for SC and ST women candidates may remain vacant

for want of suitable candidates. He pointed out that the

centre used to share half the cost of creation of such

infrastructure in special institutions even before SSA was

introduced. Though the central share under SSA in the 10

Plan was 75 percent, the central share for special

institutions for SC/ST communities remained at 50 percent.

This anomaly needs to be corrected and the centre should

share 70 percent.

The CM said that the proposal to establish 370 new colleges

in districts with low GER and setting up of 6 thousand high

quality model schools in commendable. The centre should

bear the entire capital cost of infrastructure for proposed

colleges. Referring to NRHM the Chief Minister informed

that Madhya Pradesh government has introduced Ladali Laxami

Yojana for improving the sex ratio.

The CM regretted that there was only a marginal decline of

2.7 percent in the incidence of rural poverty among STs.

The disturbing situation is because of the very low

productivity in agriculture. This low productivity is due

to the absence of development of irrigation facilities.

Development of even minor irrigation schemes in tribal

areas generally involves diversion of small patches of

forestland. The mechanism for permission for the diversion

of forestland for minor irrigation needs to be streamlined

to speed up the approval and implementation of such schemes

under AIBP. Unfortunately, forestland cannot be used for

developing irrigation resources in view of Hon'ble Supreme

Court's orders and other legal difficulties. If the centre

and states fail to resolve this difficulty through dialogue

with judiciary treating this to be a grave emergency, the

situation may explode. Such a scenario only feeds naxal

violence.

The CM lamented the delay in implementation of the central

legislation for protecting tribal rights and made a fervent

appeal for notifying the required subordinate legislation,

guidelines and rules, and the long overdue rights of

tribals should be formally recorded in the prescribed time.

The CM said that the National Employment Guarantee Scheme

should provide for 150 days employment for every family in

a year.

Mr Chouhan said that it has been learnt that central

assistance for development of Bundelkhand region of UP as

the most backward region is being seriously considered. The

Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh adjoins the

Bundelkhand of UP. It is much more backward. He appealed

that the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh should get

the assistance at par with the Bundelkhand region of UP.

Otherwise, it would be discrimination, he said.

Global credit crisis may hit growth: PM

The possibility of recession in some rich nations and the

financial crisis in the global capital markets due to sub-

prime lending may impact India's exports and funds inflows,

PM Manmohan Singh warned on Wednesday.

"There are some clouds on global financial markets after

the sub-prime lending crisis," the PM told the 54th meeting

of the National Development Council (NDC) in New Delhi to

approve the Rs 36.44 trillion 11th Five-Year Plan. "Our

economy is now increasingly integrated into the global

economy with the external sector now accounting for almost

40 percent of gross domestic product and hence, we cannot

be fully immune to international developments."

At the same time, the PM said the possibility of

accelerating growth to over 10 per cent was a distinct

possibility with the right policies, as also because of

rising savings and interest rates and the economy's

resilience.

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