Plan panel’s concern over inter-state disparity

Outlining the causes for the widening gap the Commission noted that "while most of the states have not been able to fully utilise the outlay approved in their discussions with the Planning commission, there has been a huge gap between the approved outlay and expenditure in the case of states like UP and Bihar which has affected almost all sectors especially, the power sector in both these states".

Another disturbing tendency was that states like Madhya Predesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala which were performing well were getting major portion of the external assistance while the others were being left out.

These states continue to be the preferred states for external assistance as major considerations for assistance by donors seem to be capabilities of states to pose projects, and ability on the part of these states to impart impressions to the donor about being reform oriented, it said.

"The critical factor appears to be effective governance to ensure balanced growth of the different regions of India," the commission said while pointing out that widening inter-state disparities were also visible in the area of human development indices like poverty and literacy.

"The percentage of population below the poverty line is the highest in Bihar with 55 per cent followed by Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, while the lowest percentage is in Punjab with 11.8 per cent", it said.

Another area of concern was the wide diferences between states in literacy levels with Kerala having over 90 per cent literacy and on the other end Orissa with just 51 per cent in 1997, the commission said.

"There are significant differentials between the ruraland the urban areas, between communities and between the genders in most states," it said adding that the most disturbing factor was that these differences were widening and not narrowing.

Emphasising on the need to narrow these disparities the commission said, "the programmes designed for uplifting the weaker sections should be closely looked at and restructured to provide long term benefits to these communities".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Saturday directed Planning Commission to formulate the Tenth Plan so as to achieve nine per cent annual growth rate even as the mid-term Ninth Plan review was critical of poor fiscal performance pushing down growth to 6.1 per cent against the target of 6.5 per cent.

"I would like the Commission to examine the feasibility of rising our growth target from 6.5 per cent in the 9th plan to nine per cent in the 10th plan…. We should define the minimum necessary set of policies to achieve this," Vajpayee told the Planning Commission of which he is the chairman.

This would be possible only if both the centre and states take a number of difficult steps with far reaching changes in in the existing policies, he said, adding it was time that the issues were "frontally" addressed to grapple with the situation.

The full Planning Commission was convened to review the mid-term plan, which also serves as an exercise to formulate the 10th plan. The Commission also broadly approved the proposal for restructuring the Planning Commission with the consensus that it functions as a Think Tank for the government, Deputy Chairman of the Commission K C Pant told reporters. Pant said the full commission agreed that Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and himself would work out details for reorientation.

The Commission also expressed concern over sharp decline in investment in the farm sector and fall in crop productivity in Green Revolution areas while apprehending that absence of domestic market reforms could be a threat to the growth of Indian agriculture. The Commission said the share of Gross Capital Formation in agriculture on the total Gross Domestic Capital Formation has declined sharply to 6.2 per cent in 1998-99 from 18 per cent in 1980-81.