The Planning Commission said, it favoured the extended plan for the KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) districts of Orissa for overall development of these areas.
Though Planning Commission will consider the proposal, the Central government can take a final decision on it, Planning Commission member Prof Abhijit Sen said here.
“I am in favour of the extended plan for KBK and the Planning Commission will consider the proposal. However, the final decision will be taken by the Union government”, he added.
Sen, who was here to review the progress of various flagship programmes and overall plan expenditure by the state government, said, the KBK proposal has not been considered by the new government in the Union budget for 2009-10. Though no allocation has been made for the programme in this year's budget, it may be done subsequently. He, however, denied that the Centre is discrimination Orissa in the matter of allocation of funds.
Talking to the media after the meeting, R V Singh, special secretary, planning and co-ordination department said, the state government has already prepared an Eight Year Perspective Plan (2009-17) for KBK districts with an outlay of Rs 4550 crore. This programme will cover a period from 2009-2017and was sent to the Planning Commission (PC) on 28 January 2009 for approval.
Stating that the plan expenditure during last fiscal was highly satisfactory, he said, the state was able to spend Rs 7571.83 crore during 2008-09 against a plan outlay of Rs 7500 crore. The annual state plan outlay for 2009-10 has been fixed at Rs 9500 crore and the government hopes to maintain the previous year’s record.
