The Annual Plan for the year 2012-13 for the state of Arunachal Pradesh was finalised here today at a meeting between Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Mr.Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Mr.NabamTuki. The plan size has been agreed at Rs 3535 crore.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Mr Ahluwalia appreciated the efforts of the State in accelerating development and catalysing infrastructure development. State was also appreciated for the improvement in growth rate which are better than the national average. It was acknowledged that the special package announced by the Prime Minister has greatly helped in generating more economic activity.
The State is now in the threshold of stepping into modern economic activity; but the pace of economic development is not commensurate with growing population consistent with requirement of socio-economic infrastructure. The growth in Per Capita Income has gone up from Rs. 26610 in 2004-2005 to Rs. 55789 in 2010-2011.
Economic development over the last decade has generated very little income and employment opportunities in rural areas. A strategy for sustained improvement in livelihood in an inaccessible mountainous State like Arunachal Pradesh has to be based on the specificity of its location and resource base.
Attention was drawn to low literacy rate which is as low as 66.95% as per 2011 Census. The gender gap in literacy in the State is highest among the NE Region and above national average. Further, the dropout rate is also high at the primary & middle and secondary levels. The huge backlog of infrastructure coupled with inadequate manpower hinders the progress of education in the State. Measures need to be taken to improve the quality of education, the physical infrastructure and the ancillary facilities in the primary education for qualitative improvement of education.
Promotion of horticulture depends on successful marketing which is weak in the State. Arunachal Pradesh is bestowed with vast hydro potential. Successfully exploiting the untapped potential of Arunachal Pradesh is of vital importance not just from point of view of the State, as bulk of the power generation in the State could be profitably utilized in other regions. It was also pointed that successful tapping of the hydro-potential can make the State economically self-sustainable in the long run. Tourism potential of the State still remains unexplored due to lack of infrastructure facilities like connectivity, tourist lodges, tourist huts, resorts etc.
Briefing the Commission on the plan priorities of the State Government and past performance, Chief Minister Mr NabamTuki said that his Government has inherited a financial management crisis from his predecessors and constraint in seeking multilateral financial support due to objections from neighbouring countries. He said numbers of new initiatives have been taken to stabilize economy but it will take some time before position improves.
He said during 12th plan major initiatives would be launched to improve human development index. To improve implementation of infrastructure projects, third party monitoring of the on-going projects has been introduced which is showing good results.
Source: Press Information Bureau , GOI India
