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Integrated plan key to neutralizing Left extremism in backward districts: PM | The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Saturday said
his government would soon announce an integrated holistic plan with the objective of neutralizing the impact of left wing extremism in the country’s least developed
backward districts. Delivering his concluding remarks at the 55th National Development
Council Meeting, which was held here to review the progress of the 11th Plan and
set right anomalies, if any, Dr. Singh said the plan would be used to strengthen
development processes in these areas in the fight against terrorism. “The challenges
posed by left wing extremism in parts of the country have been addressed by many
Chief Ministers. I have taken note of these suggestions. The Planning Commission
is working on an integrated program of development for selected backward districts,
which would help strengthen the developmental element in the fight against extremism,
keeping in mind the suggestions made in our discussions,” Dr. Singh said. Seeking
the cooperation of the states in dealing with left-wing extremism, Dr. Singh asked
the Planning Commission to take the lead in designing the program and make sure
they were attuned with special circumstances in these states. He said there should
be no doubt that leftwing extremism has to be countered by both the Centre and
the States. Action against the Maoists, however, had to be supplemented by action
on implementing the Forest Rights Act and the Panchayati Raj Act, and providing
additional resources for development of these areas, he said. "Effective implementation
of Forest Rights Act and Panchayati Raj (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act are
critical. Failure to implement these laws in letter and spirit reduces the credibility
of our commitment to bring development to these neglected regions," the Prime
Minister said. Candidly admitting that development schemes have not worked well
in backward and impoverished parts of the country, Singh said additional resources
for development was the need of the hour. "We must make a concerted effort to
bridge the development deficit in these backward areas and reduce whatever sense
of alienation that may exist among Adivasis living in these areas," he said. He
pointed out that central flagship programs like MGNREGA were doing well in many
states, but added that there are "examples of poor implementation" also. Dr Singh
also called for vigorous implementation of initiatives like the Right to Education
and the NRHM. "This will require more resources. However, it is equally important
to pay attention to improving the delivery system in order to achieve the desired
outputs," he said. Stress was also laid on the need for protecting the environment,
which is under the threat from various sources of pollution, Dr. Singh said. "The
threat of climate change looms large and requires national action plan and international
action. How well we handle these problems will determine whether our growth strategy
is sustainable in medium or long term," he said. The Prime Minister said he expected
good rains to help halve inflation to six per cent by December 2010. This remark
assumes significance in the wake of the monsoon session of Parliament, which is
expected to be stormy over issues, including price rise. The monsoon accounts
for around 80 per cent of rains India receives and nearly 60 per cent of the cultivated
land is rain-fed. Two years of poor rains had led to an upward spiral in food
prices, the effect of which spread to manufactured goods. Food inflation is above
12 per cent and overall rate of price rise is above 10 per cent, giving the opposition
enough ammunition to corner the government. On the pace of economic growth, he
said the country's gross domestic product is expected to expand by 8.1 per cent
during the 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-12) against the targeted nine per
cent. India 's economic growth slowed down during 2008-09 to 6.7 per cent from
over nine per cent since 2005-06 due to the global financial crisis. However,
stimulus packages to boost demand pushed it up to 7.4 per cent last fiscal. Economic
growth is expected to be 8.5 per cent this fiscal. On tax reforms, Dr. Singh appealed
to chief ministers to extend their support to the Goods and Services Tax (GST),
which the government wants to implement from the next fiscal. Since the introduction
of GST would require constitutional amendments and ratification by at least half
of state assemblies. On the losses in the power sector, Dr. Singh said: "The power
sector is particularly important if we wish to achieve nine percent growth. Total
loss in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs.40, 000 crore. Unless corrected it will make
the whole power sector unviable." He attributed these losses to low levels of
tariff for some categories of consumers and high technical and commercial losses.
India has one of highest transmission and distribution losses in the world. It
lost 30 per cent of the total power produced (over 160,000 MW) in transmission
and distribution, which in monetary terms is estimated at Rs.45, 000 crore for
fiscal 2009-10. The Prime Minister said since investment in generation and transmission
depends upon the ability of the distribution companies to pay. He urged state
governments to pay due attention to the farm sector which is crucial for curbing
inflation and achieving broad based improvement in living standards in rural areas.
He also said there is a need for reducing fiscal deficit in the coming years.
In conclusion, he said: “This has been a very fruitful discussion on Mid Term
Appraisal ( MTA ) of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, in general, and in particular
the five important issues that were identified, in particular. The sense of the
discussions revealed a broad measure of agreement with the assessment and policy
corrections suggested in the MTA . It is a suitable basis for initiating preparatory
work on the Twelfth Five Year Plan.” “A number of very valuable remarks and suggestions
have been made by the honourable Chief Ministers. The Planning Commission has
taken cognisance of these remarks and suggestions, and will act on them in the
coming months,” he added. |
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