Planning Commission earmarks 10% of gross budgetary support for Northeast

KOLKATA: The Planning Commission has advocated sizeable support for IT and telecoms project-linked initiatives in the Northeast as part of its annual plan proposals for 2012-13.

In an internal communique, Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai has urged the telecoms ministry to earmark at least 10% of the gross budgetary support (GBS) for the northeastern states.

“As per the prime minister’s initiatives, I would request you to earmark at least 10% of the GBS for the Northeast states. E-governance and IT appli-cations should also be given the necessary importance and 2-to-3 per cent of the budget should be earmarked for this purpose,” Ms Pillai notes in her communique to telecoms secretary R Chandrasekhar.

She has, however, called for judicious and efficient utilisation of available re-sources by key central departments for maintaining fiscal balance. The internal note does not reveal any specific project details regarding the proposed deployment of budgetary support to the Northeastern states under the realm of e-governance , IT applications or telecoms.

“Improving infrastructure in both rural and urban areas is critical for in-clusive growth. The resource requirements for infrastructure development are massive, and hence, public investment will need to be supported by private-public partnerships whereever it is feasible,” notes the Planning Commission in her communique.

She has also reiterated that the PM has repeated underscored the impor-tance of converting financial outlays into outcomes and fixing quarterly measurable and monitorable task to improve overall implementation of development programs.