Pondicherry Plan Size Increased By Rs 4 Crore

The annual Plan size for Pondicherry has been hiked by 4 per cent to Rs 312 crore for 2000-01. The increase has come about mainly due to extra resource mobilisation by the Union Territory even in the face of a small decline in Central assistance.

Revenue collection has been Rs 478.91 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 411.71 crore during 1999-2000. The Union Territory must, however, reduce non-Plan expenditure, said Planning Commission deputy chairman K C Pant.

Utilisation of funds by Pondicherry in various annual Plans of the Ninth Plan period has been quite good. During the first three years of the Ninth Plan, about Rs 779.8 crore was spent which is about 60 per cent of the total outlay of Rs 13,000 crore for the Ninth Plan. Percentage utilisation of funds for the 1999-2000 Plan has been 99.56 per cent.

 

Agriculture accounts for about 50 per cent of the income of the Union Territory and it supports about 70 per cent of the rural population.

Taking into account the pressure on land the present ground water availability and the uncertainty of canal water, the Union Territory has fixed a moderate foodgrain target of 115,000 million tonne for the Ninth Plan, of which rice production target is 1,06,000 million tonne.

Progressive urbanisation and other industrial activities are expected to bring down the net cultivated areas from 27,836 hectare to 24,000 hectare by the end of the Ninth Plan. In addition, the fertiliser consumption, at 300 kg/hectare, is the highest in the country.

Expressing concern over the shrinking area under cultivation in Pondicherry, Pant said attention needs to be paid to the fact that the diversion does not adversely affect the rural population. He suggested that the Union Territory encourage the use of bio-fertilisers and recharging of ground water in view of its over exploitation.

Setting up of effluent treatment plants at industrial sites should also be considered to keep the environment eco-friendly besides large-scale tree plantation to check soil and coastal erosion, he said.

He also urged Pondicherry to expedite power sector reforms and to set up an electricity regulatory commission at the earliest.