UP wants funds to meet infrastructure needs

The Uttar Pradesh government has demanded that the centre instituted an infra-structure gap balancing fund for backward states.

UP Planning Commission deputy chairman N C Bajpai said infrastructure was a critical factor for backward states like UP, and needed pro-active support of the Centre by way of funds.

Bajpai was speaking at the Consultative Meeting on Manufacturing Plan (Part of 12th Five Year Plan) organised by Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) here last evening.

Arun Maira, member (Industry), Planning Commission, Government of India and UP minister of state for protocol Abhishek Mishra were also present on the occasion . Besides, the state government wants the commercial banks to have a “drastic” look at their credit deposit (CD) ratio in UP and improve upon it. During 2009-10, the CD ratio of commercial banks in UP stood at 42.57 per cent vis-à-vis national figure of 72.70 per cent.

“Even if the CD ratio is improves by 10 per cent in UP, it would mean mobilisation of extra Rs 31,480 crore for the state, which would be huge for us. The commercial banks need to be motivated by the Centre in this regard,” Bajpai added.

He said UP would need public-private investment to the tune of Rs 7,50,000 crore during the 12 th Plan to grow at the targetted 10 per cent, of which the manufacturing sector would need Rs 3,80,000 crore.

“The state manufacturing and IT policies had lapsed in 2009 itself and the current regime is now formulating new policies in all the key sectors, such as energy (including solar), industry and IT.

“The land acquisition aspect is also being looked at holistically,” he informed.

Earlier, the FISME president V K Agarwal lamented that the share of manufacturing in the state GDP was 13 per cent compared to 16 per cent nationally.

While the workforce absorption in manufacturing was 7.7 per cent in UP compared to 12-17 per cent in developed states.

He called upon the state government to facilitate ease of doing business in UP and accord priority to medium and semi-medium enterprises (MSMEs) in government procurement processes.