Gujarat Annual Plan 2010-11 Finalized

The Annual Plan for Gujarat for the year 2010-11 was finalized at a meeting, here today, between the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi. Plan size for the current year was agreed at Rs.30000 crores.

In his remarks on the plan performance of the State, Mr. Ahluwalia said that performance in the agriculture sector was encouraging and growth rate of the State was much above the national average. He said in the first year of the Eleventh Plan Gujarat registered a growth of 12.8 per cent. He said in terms of per capita income also the State was better than most others.

On development strategy, Mr. Ahluwalia said that the State need to formulate a science & technology vision for the State with a definite road map for intervention in the developmental efforts which may also include specific action plan for capturing technological solutions. It can identify three important technological priorities and bring together the scientific agencies and stake holders for sustainable technology partnership.

He said there was lot of scope for public private partnership in the development of infrastructure. Policy initiatives aimed at creating investment friendly environment need to be taken by the States so that in partnership with private sector the process of creating world class infrastructure in both physical and social sectors is expedited.

Attention was drawn to high T&D losses in the power sector in some areas and need to improve performance in social sector. It was pointed out that there was shortage of human resources for health care and cases of malnutrition in women and children in tribal areas were high. The State was advised to focus on improving female literacy, vocational and higher education.

Chief Minister Shri Modi said the development strategy of the State includes focused attention to improve human development index, invest in human capital, priority to skill development and employment, empowerment through education, doubling real income in less than seven years and rural infrastructure. He said the State plans to set up country’s first solar park where 700 MW of power will be generated. A comprehensive Plan to improve civic amenities including sanitation and information infrastructure in 80 small cities would be launched during the year. 800 centres for skill development will be set up in semi-urban areas to meet market demand of skilled workers.