Planning Commission deputy chairman K.C. Pant on Saturday said that specific monitorable targets had been set in the Tenth Plan to tackle rising unemployment and for the first time the panel had fixed state-wise growth targets to bring about balanced regional development in the country.While addressing a press conference here after the full panel meet with the Prime Minister to finalise the draft of the Tenth Plan, Pant said that national targets had not necessarily translated into balanced regional development and the potential and constraints that existed at the State-level vary significantly and these needed to be taken into account while assessing the feasibility of the proposed development strategy.Pant said the most pressing issue at present is the rapid growth in the labour force that the country is going to face in the next decade. At current rates of growth, and with the current labour intensity in production, rising unemployment could lead to social unrest. All objectives and targets of the Plan must therefore take this possibility into account and ensure it did not occur. While doing so, the issues of poverty and the unacceptable low levels of the country’s social indicators would have to be addressed, he said.“Although these have been objectives in earlier plans, in the Tenth Plan we are working towards specific monitorable targets which will need to be attained along with the growth rate.” Pant also said that “We have tried to ensure that our planning involves the people and is demand-based to the extent possible.”“A carefully crafted medium-term macro-economic policy stance, both for the Centre and the States is a feature of the Tenth Plan,” he said, adding that this had been done taking into account the conduct of macro-economic policies and instruments in a market-oriented economy.Pant also said that efforts will have to be made to ensure that the growth momentum in the non-agriculture sectors that had been in evidence in the first quarter of this year was maintained.
