Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 25: Jammu and Kashmir was all set to get Rs 44,000 crore for the 12th Five Year Plan, which has begun from the current financial year of 2012-13 as against the demand of Rs 68,000 projected by it before the Union Government and the Planning Commission of India in separate communications and meetings.
An informal nod to J&K and other States’ 12th Five Year Plan would be given in the meeting of National Development Council (NDC) being held in New Delhi on December 27. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would preside over the meeting in the presence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Ahluwalia and other senior functionaries of the Union Government.
Chief Ministers of their representatives from the States and Administrators or their representatives from Union Territory would attend the meeting, which would discuss broad contours of 12th Five Year Plan.
Principal Secretary, Planning Development Department, J&K, B R Sharma, who would be part of the J&K’s high level delegation told the Excelsior that the State has already submitted a detailed projection for 12th Five Year Plan of all the Departments.
“All elements pertaining to development and other aspects would be discussed in the meeting”, Mr Sharma said, adding the year wise projects and broad guidelines for 12th Five Year Plan would be discussed, debated and finalized in the one day meeting.
The J&K’s delegation would be headed by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and comprised Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Financial Commissioner (Finance) Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary (Planning) B R Sharma and Principal Resident Commissioner, New Delhi, R K Goyal.
Official sources said the State was expected to get Rs 44,000 crore for 12th Five year Plan as against the projection of Rs 68,000 crore. The Union Government, the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission have dropped enough hints to the State Government that they would be getting Rs 44,000 crore under the 12th Five Year Plan, which has started in 2012-13 and would end in 2016-17.
During 11th Five Year Plan, which ended during last financial year of 2011-12, the State Government had been given Rs 28,000 crore. Going by that, the allocation of Rs 44,000 crore was going to be quite significant though it falls short of the expectations of the State, which had projected a case of Rs 68,000 crore.
Health, development, poverty alleviation, agriculture, unemployment etc remained focus areas of 12th Five Year Plan countrywide. In Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to these five sectors, tourism development has also been added as another priority area, sources said.
The amount under Five Year Plan covered annual plan, Centrally Sponsored Schemes and funds under various other heads. It excludes the award the State would get under the Finance Commission, which was also expected to be constituted by the Central Government next year. This would be the 14th Finance Commission. The Commission gives its award after visiting all the States.
Sources said after the finalisation of 12th Five Year Plan, the State Government would seek meeting with the Planning Commission of India for discussions on annual plan of the State for 2013-14. The Government had to incorporate figures of the plan and other development schemes in the budget to be presented before the State Legislature.
The 12th Five Year Plan document has expressed concern over the perception of discrimination and alienation among the Muslim community and called for innovative steps to extend benefits of the Government schemes to needy persons of the minority community.
“Innovative steps are needed such as expanding facilitators in Muslim concentrated villages and towns to act as interface between the community and the state institutions,” said the draft Plan document. Noting that only a few members of the Muslim community benefit from the various development schemes of the Government, the document said, “an important concern vis-a-vis the Muslim community is the perception of discrimination and alienation. This needs to be appropriately addressed in the 12th Plan”.
It said that Muslims, who constitute the largest religious minority comprising about 13.4 per cent of the total population, lag behind others in terms of economic, health and education indices.
As per the recent estimates, the document said the poverty ratio for Muslims was 33.9 per cent in urban areas, especially on account of states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal.
In case of rural areas, it said, poverty ratio for Muslims was very high in states such as Assam, Uttar, West Bengal and Gujarat.
According to the document, “The literacy and work participation amongst the Muslims is low as compared to other minority communities. The majority of them are engaged in traditional and low paying professions, or are mostly small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, small traders, craftsmen and so on.”
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