Up Core Plan Size Fixed At Rs 9,025 Crore

The core plan size for Uttar Pradesh was fixed at Rs 9,025 crore. The concept of a core plan which is based on the states identifiable resources has been introduced this year in allocating state resources. Of the total, Rs 470 crores has been allocated for the hill districts of UP.

The total size of the Plan, which the state will try to achieve, was however retained at Rs10,394 crores, as the state had budgeted. The state will have to raise resources to meet the shortfall between the plan size and the core plan.

At a meeting between the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, KC Pant and the UP State Chief Minister, Ram Prakash Gupta yesterday, the CM said that as a result of the measures adopted by the state, the fiscal deficit for 2000-01would be brought down to 6 per cent from the current level of 7per cent.

 

The state has also made a breakthrough in its resource mobiization efforts with the World Bank having sanctioned the first ever programme loan to a state at the sub national level, said the CM. The first installment of Rs 1,100 crore has come in and the next installment is expected by the end of the current year.

Briefing the commission on the planned development of the state, he said an agriculture policy has been formulated and a decision taken to set up an agriculture development fund to accelerate the pace of agriculture development.

On reforms in the power sector, he said the state electricity board had been split into three independent corporations and loans amounting to Rs 19,500 crore had been

The state expects to raise Rs 1,000 crore from power tariffs this year.

The chief minister said the state had to face an additional burden of Rs 4,000 crore on account of the Fifth Pay Commission and added that a major portion of revenue was being lost in repayment of interest on the loans availed.

He urged the commission to increase the normal central assistance to the state by a minimum of Rs 200 crore and requested for the enhancement of special hill area assistance from Rs 457.86 crore to Rs 600 crore.

Backward states should be allowed a longer period for the payment of loans at reduced rate of interest and all states should be considered at par while deciding the pattern of central assistance, he added.

Addressing the meeting, Pant said that the state must pay more attention to the development of infrastructure such as road transport and power sector to accelerate its growth rate and encourage private sector participation.