The Hindu Business Line : Kerala mulls annual Plan outlay of Rs 6,950 cr

Plan highlights
Emphasis on traditional sectors while promoting modern ones.
To target "development from below" by organising local entrepreneurs into cooperatives.
Stress on education, health, housing and social security.
To have 12 "flagship schemes" including small industry, IT, rural energy, agriculture and health.

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Thiruvananthapuram Jan. 21 Kerala is considering an annual Plan outlay of Rs 6,950 crore for 2007-08 as against Rs 6,210 crore this year. The State Planning Board, which met on Saturday, also fixed the Eleventh Plan outlay at Rs 40,422 crore for the five-year period between 2007-08 and 2011-12.

Briefing newspersons on the deliberations at the meeting, the Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, said that the State Cabinet would examine the details of the annual Plan before finalising it.

Mr Prabhat Patnaik, Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board, said that the Tenth Plan outlay, which was fixed at Rs 24,000 crore at 2001-02 prices, was likely to fall short by about 25 per cent. After adjusting for price increases, the Eleventh Plan outlay would be 50 per cent higher than the actual Tenth Plan outlay.

Main features

Mr Patnaik explained that the Eleventh Plan had three main features. It lays emphasis on traditional sectors like agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry and traditional industries, even while seeking to promote modern industry, advanced infrastructure, tourism, information technology and biotechnology.

Secondly, while welcoming large entrepreneurs to the State, the Plan visualises a process of "development from below" by organising local entrepreneurs into cooperatives. This will be brought about with the help of the self-governing bodies.

The Third main feature of the Plan is the emphasis on education, health, housing and social security even while promoting productive sectors. This is aimed at ensuring a marked improvement in the conditions of the people straightaway, without waiting for the "trickling down' of the benefits of growth.

The Plan features 12 "flagship schemes" and they relate, among other things, to agriculture, health, education, housing, employment, small industry, IT and rural energy.

In the agriculture scheme, the focus is on improvement in food security in the State through measures like promotion of food production and stabilisation of the cash-crop economy. In the area of health, the scheme is to provide universal health security through extending free healthcare to the bottom 30 per cent of the population and healthcare at affordable prices to the rest.

In education, one of the proposals is for offering fellowships to research students for a five-year period in basic sciences, social sciences, humanities and applied sciences. Also, scholarships will be provided to at least one per cent of all students at the plus-two and university levels.

The scheme for housing visualises the provision of free housing to all the poor households through construction of new houses and renovation of old ones. The employment scheme envisages overcoming information gaps between the prospective employees and employers and setting up of `finishing schools' to augment the employment prospects of the youth.

The scheme for IT and small industry aims at providing assistance to the traditional industrial sector, as much as to the IT sector where the State has a comparative advantage. The main objective of the rural energy scheme is to bridge the energy gap between the urban and rural areas of the State.

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