Gujarat's XIth Plan finalised at Rs 111,111 crore

New Delhi, Apr 1 (UNI) The Planning Commission today finalised Gujarat's Annual Plan (2008-09) at Rs 21,000 crore, up 31 per cent from last year, and the Eleventh Plan size at Rs 1,11,111 crore.

The Annual Plan, which includes additional Central assistance of Rs 130 crores for projects of special importance to the state, and the Eleventh Five-Year Plan size were finalised after more than a two-hour meeting between Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other officials of the Commission at Yojana Bhavan here.

A beaming Mr Modi later told mediapersons that he was fully satisfied with the size of both the Annual Plan and the Five-Year Plan.

''Initially, we had planned Gujarat's Eleventh Five-Year at a size of Rs 100,000 crore, but in view of the direction and momentum of the developmental impulses, it was hiked to Rs 1,11,111 crore,'' he said.

Similarly, the Annual Plan (2008-09), initially, was to be pegged at Rs 19,000 crore, but it was subsequently increased by another Rs 2,000 crore.

Mr Modi, who was accompanied by a high-level team of ministers and senior officials, also announced that Gujarat would observe the current year as the ''Healthy Child Year'' while the priorities of the government would be on improvement of the Human Development Index (HDI) and welfare measures for tribals and fishermen.

Gujarat also proposes to set up a Children's University which will be the first of its kind in the country.

''A staggering 43 per cent of the budget has been earmarked for the uplift of the poorest of the poor -- those who are languishing at the lowest rung of the soiciety -- and for an upward swing in HDI,'' he said, hoping that the Eleventh Plan would impart a new monetum to the state's growth trajectory.

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