Nagaland annual plan outlay fixed at Rs 900 crore for 2007-08

New Delh, Feb 6 (UNI) The annual plan outlay for Nagaland for the year 2007-08 was fixed at Rs 900 crore at marathon meeting held here today.

During the meet the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia complimented the Nagaland Government for high growth rate specially in the sectors of agriculture and education.

He said socio-economic progress in the state was impressive.

Efforts to promote bio-diversity conservation and empowering village development committees were steps in the right direction.

He also appreciated the Eleventh Plan proposal of the state and suggested that efforts should be made to improve tax base.

During the meet, it was pointed out that more districts of the state should be covered under National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), state was asked to pay more attention to programmes under Bharat Nirman and work towards improving quality of education.

Attention was also drawn to losses in the power sector.

The state chief minister Neiphiu Rio while submitted his point of views said that the policies followed for the last few years have helped in accelerating growth.

He said growth in agriculture particularly horticulture was encouraging and have attained commercial scale. Industrial houses like Dabur and ITC have shown interest in the products. Flowers are being exported and food grains production has gone up substantially.

He added efforts are on a balance liberalisation with social equity for which many innovations ranging from new and simple technologies to e-governance are being introduced.

Mr Rio said the state is being counted among front running performing states of the country. The per capita income was at slightly over Rs 21,000.

He further added the state would be aiming at a growth rate of 14.46 per cent for the Eleventh Plan period. Besides agriculture focus will be on marketing, processing and technology intervention. organic cultivation would also be promoted.

The chief minister urged the Planning Commission for providing adequate central support in improving the state's connectivity.

UNI