Orissa to seek 250 million Dollar WB Loan

Bhubaneswar,Aug 7 (UNI)The Orissa government is contemplating to avail around 250 million dollar World Bank assistance to undertake various socio-economic development projects in the state.

Development Commissioner R N Bohidar told newspersons here after discussing the issue with a three-member World Bank team who called on him at the state secretariat.

Mr Bohidar said the state government had already availed loan from the World Bank twice earlier for the project.

While the first phase of the loan was utilised to help the state tide over the financial crisis, the second phase was used to achieve economic growth and the third to achieve inclusive growth.

The World Bank team was here to assess the utilisation of the funds released so far and to assess the need for further assistance.

Mr Bohidar said the World Bank team was explained how the fund was utilised for laying road, rural electrification and other developmental works.

The Development Commissioner said PSUs were asked to spend five per cent of their profit for the peripheral development. The government, he said, was now formulating guidelines for the utilisation of funds for the peripheral development.

The guidelines, Mr Bohidar said, would clearly state how to spend the money, the sector on which the money should be spent and which areas should get priority.

The government, he said, would also conduct an institutional study on industry-locality interaction. The study would try to assess the motive of the locality to accept an industry, expectation of the local people and suggest what type of ancillary development should take place so that the local people would have a vested industry to run the project.

Based on the reports infrastructure development would be planned making a symbiosis of the project cost and expectation of the people,he stated.

The report of the Regional Imbalance Commission which submitted its report to the government yesterday would also be utilised to decide how much weightage would be given to various area while finalising the budget allocation,the Development Commissioner said.

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