Bihar preparing its own five year plan

Bihar government is preparing its own approach paper for the 12th five-year Plan (2012-17). The move has been initiated in the backdrop of recently held first-ever Regional Consultative Committee Meeting here in May, which was attended by deputy chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia along with representatives from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

Preparatory exercise is in progress for giving the approach paper a final shape, said principal secretary (department of planning and development) Vijay Prakash on Thursday. The exercise for preparing separate approach paper for the state, which began for the first time in 2010, outlines the broad development strategy and sectoral policies covering agriculture, industry, infrastructure and the social sector.

The State Statistics Strengthening Project (SSSP) would be launched for the first time in the state with the aid of the World Bank wherein a common cadre of statistics officers from all departments would be created. Under the project, 20 core statistics fixed by the Union government would be developed on a par with international standard, Prakash said adding the state would get Rs 92 crore for this from Centre in the next four years.

Prakash said against final state Plan outlay of Rs 18,351.46 crore approved by the Centre for 2010-11, the state government spent Rs 18717.57 crore which was 101.99% of the Plan outlay. This marks a major achievement as expenditure surpassed the Plan outlay, he added. He further said for the year 2011-12, the Plan outlay had been increased to Rs 24,000 crore.

In the 2011-12 fiscal, the state government also launched the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana for balanced development of both rural and urban localities.

As much as 85% of funds under this scheme would be spent on the development of rural areas and 15% for urban areas. The fund would be spent on construction of panchayat and urban local bodies buildings, government buildings, godowns, lanes and by-lanes, community buildings, public bus stoppages, passenger sheds, public libraries, sports ground, public river ghats, development of hats, public platforms and public theatres, the principal secretary said.

Steps have already been initiated for selection of programmes under the scheme for which a selection committee has been constituted in every districts with minister in-charge of the district as its president and MLAs and MLCs of that particular area as its members, Prakash said. Three non-governmental candidates nominated by the state government would also be in the committee while the DM concerned would act as member secretary and district programme officer as convenor, he said.

Also, for the first time in the state a Local Region Engineers’ Organization would be created at three levels – state, division and district – in the state with one division each in 19 districts and two divisions each in the rest of the 19 districts. For this 200 posts of engineers would be created, Prakash said.