Differences on Plan funding with finmin will be ironed: Montek

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today expressed the hope that his differences with the Finance Ministry on approach to funding of the Eleventh Plan(2007-11) will get ironed out.

"These differences are normal and do get sorted out at the end," Dr Ahluwalia told Reporters here when quizzed on whether he had made a case for relaxing the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act(FRMBA) to find resources for the next Plan.

Dr Ahluwalia clarified that he has not yet met Finance Minister P Chidambaram in this connection, but averred that larger resources were needed to fund the next Plan, which has ambitious targets, including achieving a higher growth rate, Dr Ahluwalia clarified that he was not for fiscal imprudence but gave the impression that following too fetish an approach on attaining the FRMB targets would come in the way of larger outlays for developmental works.

In reply to a question on the larger resources demanded by the HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Dr Ahluwalia said all Ministeries were seeking larger funds and the HRD Ministry was no exception.

When asked about a controversy raised by some scientisits that he had favoured going slow on building fast breeder reactors, Dr Ahluwalia denied ever having made such a statement and said he was not aware of any issue taken up by scientists in this regard.

He said he will find out the truth in this regard and stated that he wanted the programme on supply of fast breeder reactors to be intensified.

UNI GS VJ VC1942