The Hindu Business Line : Infrastructural development needed to remove regional disparities

HYDERABAD: The development of infrastructure and connectivity is the single most important task to remove regional disparities, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission said on Saturday.

"Formulating specific anti-poverty programmes and focus on infrastructure and connectivity will make huge difference and will have spill-over effect," Mr Ahluwalia said while inaugurating a two-day conference on "growth and development of lagging regions in India" here.

The conference is being organised by Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) in collaboration with the World Bank.

Disagreeing with the perception that in the post-liberalisation scenario the poor states have slipped further while rich states have performed well, he said. "It is not true that poor states have not done well. They have done better than in the past".

He, however, said there are some regions within the States that are lagging behind in the development. For instance, Bihar has registered an accelerated growth touching 4.7 per cent in the Tenth Plan period as against 2.2 per cent in the Eighth Plan peri od.

Orissa, which had 2.1 per cent growth rate in the Eighth Plan period, made a significant turnaround, clocking 9.1 per cent growth rate in the Tenth Plan period.

Unlike in the past, several States were now setting growth targets that are above the national average and there had been a much greater focus on lagging regions within the States, Mr Ahluwalia said. - PTI

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