Nanjundappa Committee: K'taka Govt seeks report from Planning Board

Bangalore, Feb 14 (UNI) The Karnataka Government has sought a report from the State Planning Board on mobilising resources for the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee report on regional imbalance in the State, State Planning Minister Ramachandra Gowda informed the Legislative Council today.

Replying to a question raised by Mr Aravind Limbavali of the BJP, he said the Nanjundappa Committee had recommended the State Government to spend over Rs 16,000 crore to end under-development in over 114 taluks, in which 39 were categorised as most backward taluks. The recommendations required over Rs 18,000 crore as per the present estimate for taking up special development plans in the backward areas of Karnataka.

Mr Gowda said that for the current year, no budgetary provisions were made to implement the Committee report. However, the Government had decided to allocate additional Rs two crore for each of the under-developed taluks in 2007-08 in accordance with the Comprehensive Cumulative Deprivation Index. The additional grant would, however, depend on the mobilisation of resources, he added.

JD(S) member B Gurudev and BJP's Manohar Maski urged the State Government to allocate more funds for removing the backward tag.

UNI