Addressing the 57th meeting of National Development Council (NDC), Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said, "We (Uttarakhand) are being deprived of the genuine incentives given earlier or their discriminatory implementation."
Raising the issue of natural resource management, Bahuguna said, "Uttarakhand is burdened with managing forests covering about two-third of total area, fragile topography, disaster proneness, two international borders and severe infrastructure deficit."
"While 12th Plan talks of access to natural resources, but in practice, at least in our case, we are being prohibited to use our natural resources- be it land, forests or rivers."
For the 12th Five Year Plan, the state has fixed an ambitious growth rate of 11 per cent, which Bahugana said is achievable if it gets desired support from the government of India.
"To achieve 11 per cent growth target during the 12th Plan Rs 65,300 crore plan investment requirement has been estimated. Keeping in view the resource constraint, we have contained our plan size at the level of Rs 57,252 crore which has been modified by the Planning Commission to Rs 45,080 crore," he said.
On lack of development in areas close to China and Nepal borders, Bahuguna said, "I request the government of India to come up with a method of fast track clearance of border and strategic roads and adequate means for faster construction." (More)
