Thursday, July 28, 2011: The Planning Commission on Wednesday approved Kerala’s Rs 12,010 crore annual Plan outlay for current fiscal, which is about 20 per cent higher than the allocation for 2010-11. “The state’s annual outlay of Rs 12,010 crore was approved here at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of KeralaOomen Chandy,” an official statement said here.
The state has proposed an outlay of Rs 11,030 crore for 2011-12, higher than the Rs 10,025 crore approved by the panel for last fiscal. Complementing the state for leading in Human development index including health and education sectors, Ahluwalia during the meeting said focus was needed on revenue generation to push forward its plans to encourage value added agriculture.
He said new initiatives are needed to create investor friendly environment and improve both social and physical infrastructure in the state. Drawing attention to inherit strengths of the state, Ahluwalia said focus in the tourism sector should be on high agenda.
Ahluwalia also asked the state to move towards the new pension system as most of other States have already done for better fiscal sustainability. He also recommended setting up of an empowered committee on Externally Aided Projects to fast track approvals. Briefing the Commission on the development strategy of the new government, Chandy said Kerala has been successful in containing both fiscal and revenue deficit. In 2010-11 fiscal deficit was only 2.91 per cent while revenue deficit was 1.39 per per cent, the chief minister said. He said in spite of financial strains because of pay commission recommendation, the state is committed to implement schemes to improve quality of life, enhance economic activities and improve agriculture production.
The Chief Minister said the Commission should allow flexibility in the utilisation of centrally sponsored schemes to improve performance. Chandy said the state intends improving wages under rural employment guarantee scheme from Rs 150 to Rs 200 and this would increase allocation for the scheme by Rs 800 crore. Like wise under Indira Awas Yojana, he said the unit cost would be raised to Rs 75,000 creating an additional demand for Rs 250 crores.
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