Economic Times, July 25, 2010
BHUBANESWAR: Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday sought a grant of Rs 4,550 crore for the proposed 8-Year Perspective Plan to expedite development process in the backward KBK (Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi) districts.
Participating in the 55th Meeting of National Development Council (NDC) deliberations at New Delhi, Mr Patnaik raised the issue of backwardness of the KBK region and said early release of funds would help the state government carry forward the development and welfare measures launched for the districts.
The chief minister made it clear that Orissa had been striving hard to achieve sustainable and inclusive higher economic growth, accelerate overall development and a faster rate of poverty reduction. He claimed that the state government was quite hopeful to attain these objectives based on the impressive and steady growth in the economy.
“The state economy has grown at an average annual rate of 9.51% during the 10th Plan and at 8.73% per annum in the first three years of the 11th Plan, at a faster rate than the national average, despite challenges posed by the global economic slow-down. Such a positive trend has helped the state make higher plan outlays over the years and give emphasis on developing productive infrastructure including roads and irrigation,” Mr Patnaik said.
The chief minister said the union government should address expeditiously some other pressing issues such as funding for various initiatives under the Right to Education Act and sharing of funds between the Centre and states in ratio of 90:10 in view of low resource base and other development needs of states.
Mr Patnaik also focused on the need to roll out more centrally funded schemes to address the issues of urban poverty, livelihood, health, housing and infrastructure, immediate attention to address the issues of abnormal delays in allocation of coal blocks / coal linkage and environmental and forest clearances for new power projects.
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