Mp Fails For The Fourth Time To Furnish Data To Plan Panel

Madhya Pradesh may get less allocation during the 10th Five Year Plan since it has failed to furnish the details of requirements to the Planning Commission by December 31, 2001, the last date for such submissions.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the state has failed to submit the information to the Planning Commission.

The Union government had warned the states that had failed to furnish the details of the requisite information, it would be forced to allocate the funds by taking the previous year's plan allocation as the basis. There is chance of the state getting less allocation on this basis.

The Digvijay Singh government had requested the Planning Commission that it would be difficult for the state to furnish the information before the first week of January.

The Planning Commission secretary Ajit Kumar has written the state chief secretary P K Mehrotra in this regard and has said that the state government plan is to be finalised well before the March-end when the National Development Board Council is going to hold its meeting, informed well placed sources.

The state chief minister Digvijay Singh and the deputy chairman of Planning Commission, K C Pant, will hold discussions on the size of the allocation by January 6 and would wrap it up by February end.

The state plan advisors of the Planning Commission will hold a day-long working group meet on various schemes. They will recommend the plan outlay for various sectors of the state, informed the sources.

The vice-chairman of the Madhya Pradesh planning board said, "The state planning board is yet to finalise the details of the required information. But we have received the letter of the Planning Commission and we have informed them that we would submit the details by first week of January."