States approve approach to Eleventh Plan

New Delhi, Dec 9 (UNI) Notwithstanding the differing viewpoints of the industrially developed and backward states, the National Development Council today approved the approach to the Eleventh Plan entailing a nine per cent annual growth during the Plan period with thrust on measures to achieve greater equity.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi demanded a change in the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula for devolution of funds to the states while Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan rejected as "unacceptable" the move of the Planning Commission to fix employment targets for states during the Eleventh Plan period.

Mr Modi charged the Centre with penalising industrially developed and efficient states and said their better performance needed to be rewarded.

Mr Achuthanandan said the state governments must have the freedom to work out their own plans if the electoral choice of the people was to be respected.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi urged the National Development Council (NDC) to recommend nationalisation and inter-linking of rivers, particularly the Southern Peninsular component, and ensure its inclusion and funding in the 11th Plan itself.

Mr Karunanidhi's remarks assumed significance in the backdrop of the vexed Mullaiperiyar Dam row with neighbouring Kerala, which had refused to honour the Supreme Court order directing Tamil Nadu to raise the storage level from 136 ft to 142 ft.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh urged the Centre to delegate to the state governments the powers for according permission for deforestation of up to 50 hectares of forest land in order to avoid delay in taking up irrigation projects.

''Beyond this, powers of recording clearance be delegated to the regional offices of the Ministry of Environment and Forest,'' he said while speaking at the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) here.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh sought urgent intervention of the Centre in regularising encroachment on forest land prior to 1980, involving 54,000 tribal families.

Pointing out that these were the areas where naxalite activities had grown over the years, Dr Singh said that the matter had been pending with the Centre for more than a decade.'' Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called for increased flow of Central assistance to less developed states to reduce growing disparities by way of region-specific interventions in states lagging behind.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav demanded "generous" Central assistance, especially in the creation of infrastructure, agriculture and education, to close the gap between the state's rate of growth and the national growth rate.

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