Rajasthan wants Gadgil formula changed

NEW DELHI: Drought-hit Rajasthan on Saturday dismissed the targets set for the 10th five year plan period as "too ambitious clearly verging on the improbable" and demanded change in Gadgil Formula for grant of central assistance under the annual plans.
In the 50th meeting of National Development Council, the state reeling under drought for the last four years, also called for reduction of interest rates on central loans in line with general trend.
Stating this here, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Centre should seriously consider converting all outstanding loans into a block loan with a moratorium of five years on repayment.
He said Plan targets of eight per cent presuming agriculture growth at 3.97 per cent, manufacturing (9.82 per cent) and exports (12.3) as certainly difficult to achieve.
Plan envisages annual investment at 28.4 per cent from domestic savings at 26.8 per cent and foreign direct investment at 1.6 per cent which cannot be reached if comparision is made with the corresponding figures of 23.3 per cent and 0.09 per cent in the ninth plan, he added.
Rs 78,000 crore or 11 per cent of the total budgetary support is to come from PSUs'' disinvestment, but against a divesting target of Rs 12,000 crore in the current year, Centre has mopped up only Rs 4,777 crore so far, he said.
Hitting out at the Gadgil formula, he said, it provides 60 per cent weightage to population tilting heavily in support of states with high population density while Rajasthan with large area and thus higher per unit cost of services'' delivery is put at a great disadvantage.