Arunachal Pradesh Plan for 2013-14 Finalized

New Delhi, April 29: The Annual Plan for the year 2013-14 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,  Nabam
Tuki. The plan size has been agreed at Rs.3,700crore.

In his comments on the plan performance of the State, Mr Ahluwalia said the State has done well and expenditure realisation is satisfactory. He said realisation during 11th five year plan was over 100 per cent. Achievement in flagship programmes also came up for special mention. Achievement in education especially in primary education was appreciated but attention was drawn to quality of education. The State was requested to focus on trained teachers.

The GSDP at constant (2004-05) prices of Arunachal Pradesh has increased by 70.18% from 2004-05 to 2012-13, while, the national GDP increased by 85.21% for the same period.The per capita NSDP at constant (2004-05) prices of Arunachal Pradesh has increased by 42.55% from 2004-05 to 2012-13 which is lower than the increase in national per capita NNI of 62.13% for the same period.

The State registered a GSDP growth of 9.4% (Agri 5.7%, Industry 13.9%, and Services 10.2%) during the 11th Plan against the growth target of 6.4% (Agriculture 2.8%, Industry 8% and Services 7.2%). The overall GSDP target for 12th Plan is 8.3% for the State (Agri 5.5%, Industry 9% and Services 10%). Ahluwalia said the Commission was aware of the need to further improve transportation facility in the border areas and it would be given special attention in the course of the year. He drew attention to the initiative of the Commission to bring flexibility in the centrally sponsored programmes to improve efficiency and asked the State to make suggestions in this regard.

The State should draw pragmatic strategies towards the dovetailing/resource convergence approach in order to utilize the fund to offer an impetus to further growth under agriculture and allied sectors.The development of irrigation facilities under the AIBP desires more cohesiveness in terms of incremental area gain for the net sown area in order to accelerate the area coverage in comparison to rain fed farming.

Attention was drawn to the varied range of tourist attraction in tribal lifestyle, heritage, eco-tourism, adventure tourism and wildlife tourism in addition to scenic landscape. The hidden tourism potentialities of the State is yet to be properly explored, exposed and presented to today’s travellers so as to generated better revenue and also for socio-economic growth of the state. The State was advised to incentivise private participation in PPP mode to fully exploit tourism potential.

The Chief Minister said that substantial growth has been recorded in revenue generation and additionalRs 350 crore were raised only through effective implementation. He said a number of austerity measures have been taken to improve fiscal health. These include ban on creation of new posts or purchase of new vehicles. He said master plan for agriculture development would be enforced shortly. He said a major effort to bring down AT&C losses is being put in place.