8 states stall 10th Plan finalisation

new delhi: delay in submitting of plan proposals by at least eight statesis expected to adversly affect the planning commission''s efforts to finalise the 10th plan by april 2002. the delay by some states has come despite a written communication by the commission last month requesting them to expedite the process for submitting their proposals for the 10th plan and annual plan 2002-03, before february 28, 2002. the commission had written to 12 states out of which only four states -- bihar, rajasthan, tamil nadu and himachal pradesh have complied -- commission sources told pti here. the remaining eight states -- uttar pradesh, west bnegal, maharashtra, gujarat, andhra pradesh, orissa, goa and uttranchal -- have failed to stick to the deadline and have sought more time. while up and uttranchal have cited recent elections as the cause for the delay, west bengal is understood to have sought time until may 2002 to finalise its plan proposals. similarly, recent disturbances in gujarat are being cited by the state government for delay while imposition of president''s rule in the state of goa is understood to be delaying its plan finalisation. the commission had requested the states to stick to the deadline since it needs their plan sizes to finalise both the allocation for the central plan as well as the state plans before calling a meeting of the national development council, sources said. the commission had earlier sought to hold a meeting of the ndc in march-end or early april but has now had to postpone the same on account of these delays, they added. "since the resources have to be distributed among the states, it is important to finalise their plan size. without this, there is difficulty in finalising the growth projections and total plan size for the 10th plan," sources said. they said most of the working groups set up to make sectoral recommendations for the 10th plan had submitted their proposals and only a few were remaining. "in any case, the plan finalisation is not held up on account of working group reports since their suggestions can always be incorporated at a later stage," they added. sources pointed out that since the ninth plan document was finalised a good two years after the plan was started, the commission was pressing states to stick to deadlines to avoid repetition of the same for the 10th plan. "in fact the exercise of holding deputy chairman-chief minister level discussion for finalisation of the plan size for the tenth plan and annual plan was started in january this year to ensure that there are no delays," they said adding that a shorter procedure for state plan discussions had also been adopted for this purpose. after the finalisation of the plan size, the concerned state plan advisers in the planning commission would convene a one-day working group discussion of the different sectors in the capital. the working groups will use the inputs of the discussions held with the state government in making their recommendations on the basis of which the sectoral outlays will be finalised, sources added.