World Bank president pats UP, says aid to carry on

LUCKNOW, NOV 11: World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn today promised to continue aid to Uttar Pradesh. ``The decision has been taken a...

LUCKNOW, NOV 11: World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn today promised to continue aid to Uttar Pradesh. “The decision has been taken after attending a presentation on the reform programmes and development projects by Chief Minister Rajnath Singh at a meeting at his residence last night,” he said.The World Bank president was all praise for the state government’s “eminently sound” strategy to introduce fiscal and governance reforms tomake the administration transparent, accountable and accessible. Observingthat Uttar Pradesh contained almost a tenth of the world’s poor, he said,“It is our privilege to work in a state with so many people of proventalent.” He also praised Indian software engineers who were in demand allover the world, including technology superpowers like Germany and US.

Addressing mediapersons, Wolfensohn said the World Bank was ready to provide aid in a timely manner to the state so that the burden of adjustment did not fall on the poor. Now, it is up to the state to determine the pace and content of the reforms and poverty eradication programmes, he added.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the Bank’s three partner states. The Bank hasapproved projects worth 700 million US dollars during the last one year inthe fields of primary education, healthcare and power, fiscal and governancereforms. With the focus on poverty alleviation, the Bank has reportedly laid emphasis on projects that involve and are driven by the beneficiary communities themselves.

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During his meeting with Wolfensohn, Rajnath Singh said despite the cash crunch, the state had made rapid strides in the fields of education, health and land development.

The Chief Minister also apprised the World Bank chief of the steps taken by the state to cut unproductive expenditure, scrapping of the vacant posts, division of the Power Board and also the measures taken to mobilise more resources.

The World Bank chief and his wife Elaine later visited two Bank-financed primary education projects in Hardoi district of the state. They interacted with the children, teachers and parents at a school in Tiloia Khurd village. Then they met farmers in Jamkhaura village who benefitted from the Sodic Lands Project under which toxic land has been successfully reclaimed.

The World Bank has provided 182.4 million US dollars for the state’s district primary education project aimed at including the most disadvantaged districts of the state in the DPEP. It involves the local community in establishing and running primary schools.

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The Bank has also given an aid of 110 million US dollars to build institutional capacity and improve quality of services in primary and referral hospitals. For the power restructuring programme, it has provided 150 million US dollars. The aid is reportedly being spent on reforms in the transmission and distribution system, on removing critical bottlenecks and on improving the quality of supply in selected areas.

The Bank is also assisting the state in implementing comprehensive reforms inpublic expenditure management, tax policy and administration, civilservices, anti-corruptin, decentralisation, privatisation, financial management and accountability. For this, the Bank has provided 126.3 million US dollars.

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