Government plans to develop social service sector

Itanagar, Mar 15 (UNI) The state has given highest priority to the social service sectors, followed by road and energy sectors in the annual plan for the forthcoming fiscal, Governor M M Jacob said here today.

Addressing the legislators on the opening day of the five-day budget session which began this morning, Mr Jacob disclosed that the annual plan has given special emphasis to infrastructural development in education, primary health and road connectivity.

The state had formulated need-based schemes under one-time additional central assistance (ACA) and special plan assistance (SPA), he said.

He said an amount of five crore had been allocated for purchase of medicines for selected district hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres. Moreover, an amount of 3.95 crore has been placed at the disposal of Deputy Commissioners for utilisation for the same purpose and a board was constituted to determine the needs of the area, he added.

''The allocation of one crore per district has been restored to enable implementation of need-based aschemes through district planning committee,'' he said.

Referring to the annual plan size for the state for 2007-2008, which was fixed at Rs 1,320 crore, he said there had been a 25 per cent increase. Mr Jacob said this was for the first time that there had been an increase in annual plan size in the state.

The Planning Commission has assured to get special exemption from Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) guidelines for the 34 un-connected administrative centers and to ensure that these centres get connected by all roads within the 11th plan.

''The full financial size for connecting these centres would be to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore,'' he said.

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