Annual Plan West Bengal 1994-95
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ANNUAL PLAN WEST BENGAL 1994-95 Volume 1 DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL JANUARY 1994 NIEPA DC D08052 UBRAaV *Si DOCUf^AENTATION C E N iH I Natio(iaI liiscitute of Educatiosyi PlannJUjj and Administration. l 7 *Bi Sri Aurobindo Matg, N«w Delhi- 1 1 0 0 1 6 ^ R r ) ^ 3 . D O C . N o ......... 0.t*............ 0 .1 :7 0 ^ ^ ^ - ANNUAL PLAN WEST BENGAL 1994-95 VOLUME 1 CONTENTS Page Forevord: Review of the Annual Plan, 1992-93 .. (i)-(xv) SECTORAL PROGRAMMES .. 1-194 I—Agriculture and Allied Activities 1.1 Crop Husbandry .. 1 1.2 Soil and Water Conservation .. 33 1.3 Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development ..35 1.4 Fisheries .. 37 1.5 Forestry and Wild Life .. 39 1.6 Plantations .. 44 1.7 Food, Storage & Warehousing .. 45 1.8 Agricultural Research and Education .. 45 1.9 Agricultural Financial Institutions .. 47 1.10 Other Agricultural Programmes .. 48 1.11 Co-operation .. 48 n —Rural Development 2.1 Special Programmes for Rural Development: 2.1.1 Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) .. 52 2.1.2 Drought Prone Area Programme .. 53 2.1.3 Integrated Rural Energy Programme (IREP) .. 54 2.2 Rural Employment—^Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) .. 55 2.3 Land Reforms .. 56 2.4 Other Rural Development Programme: 2.4.1 Community Development .. 59 2.4.2 Panchayats .. 60 III—Special Area Programme 3.1 Hill Areas .. 63 3.2 Other Special Area Programmes .. 63 IV—^Irrigation and Flood Control 4.1 Major and Medium Irrigation .. 69 4.2 Minor Irrigation .. 78 4.3 Command Area Development ,. 83 4.4 Flood Control and Drainage .. 84 Page V—Energy 5.1 Power 87 5.2 Non-Conventional Sources of Energy 99 VI—^Industry and Minerals 6.1 Village and Small Industries 101 6.2 Industries (Other than Village and Small Industries) 107 6.3 Mining 117 VII—Transport 7.1 Civil Aviation 118 7.2 Roads and Bridges 118 7.3 Road Transport 121 7.4 Inland Water Transport 129 Vni—Communications 131 IX—Science, Technology & Environment 9.1 Scientific Research (including S & T) 132 9.2 Ecology and Environment 134 X—General Economic Services 10.1 Secretariat Economic Services 137 10.2 Tourism 138 10.3 Surveys and Statistics 139 10.4 Civil Supplies 141 10.5 Other General Economic Services 142 XI—Social Services 11.1 General Education 143 11.2 Technical Education , , 148 11.3 Sports and Youth Services . • 155 11.4 Art and Culture 158 11.5 Medical & Public Health 161 11.6 Water Supply & Sanitation 164 11.7 Housing . 167 11.8 Urban Development 170 11.9 Information & Publicity • • 174 11.10 Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Qasses 177 11.11 Labour and Employment , . 178 11.12 Social Security and Welfare 181 11.13 Nutrition . * 185 11.14 Other Social Services 185 XTT—General Services 12.1 Jails 186 12.2 Stationery & Printing . 188 12.3 Public Worlcs . 188 12.4 Other Administrative Services 194 FOREWORD The Annual Plan (1994-95) of the State is being formulated at a time when the Indian Economy has entered into an economic crisis with implications extending beyond the usual economic sphere. For the first time since Independence, our country, as the data published in the latest Economic Survey (1992-93) of the Government of India show, has entered into the debt-trap of external loans in the specific sense that more than 100% of the external loans taken during the first nine months of 1992-93 have been used for repayment of past loans. It is at this time that assaults are being made on the sovereignty of the country, and the marks of submission before the conditionalities of IMF loan are glaringly visible in several spheres. There has been, for instance, in the last two Union Budgets a massive and abrupt reduction in customs duty, amounting to more than Rs. 4 thousand crores, to facilitate entry of imported items into domestic market, often at the cost of displacing the goods so long produced by the domestic industry. There is now a widespread recession in several of the Westem countries. There has been a pressure implied in the IMF loan conditionalities to sell products of those countries in our market. In the core area of the so-called New Economic Policy, and the last two Union Budgets, there has been a surrender to this pressure. Since there has not been any proportionate growth in exports for Indian products (in fact the negative gap between imports and exports has dangerously widened by more than 150% between 1991-92 and 1992-93), this surrender in terms of displacing domestic products by imports has meant for Indian industry a further curtailment of market, and particularly domestic market, which has already been restricted by the limited purchasing power of the common people. Result has been a widespread recession in Indian industry over the last two years or so, as clearly indicated by the index of manufacturing industrial production (base 1980-81=100) for the entire country falling from 208.0 in 1990-91 to 206.1 in 1992-93, and showing a falling trend even in 1993-94. This overall industrial recession, coupled with the so-called exit policy, as imposed by IMF loan conditionalities has further aggravated the problem of unemployment. Moreover, the over-all price index has once again shown a rising trend belying all earlier predictions. 2. It seems that the policy which is being imposed on the nation through the IMF loan conditionalities is one of indiscriminate and unrestrained market forces. In a situation where there is extreme inequality in the ownership of resources (due to stalled land reforms and concentration of industrial capital), the policy of unrestrained market economics will only make the more economically powerful sections the controlling force of the entire economy. So long this controlling power was concentrated primarily in the hands of domestic industrialists and landlords. However, with the pressure of IMF conditionalities and strength of greater economic resource, this controlling power is now also being passed on to the industrialists abroad. It is through this process that wide entry is being given to the imported goods into our domestic market. There is, however, no proportionate entry given to the Indian exports in the foreign markets. As a result, as already mentioned, the trade gap between our imports and exports has widened dangerously, and we have been forced into the "death trap" of external loans. If this process is allowed to continue, we, as a nation, will be thrown more deeply into this trap, and there will be further assaults on our sovereignty. 3. Confronted with this crisis, unprecedented since the Independence, we have been repeatedly presenting the possibility of an alternative path of development in the interests of the common people of our country. The main thrust of this alternative approach is that instead of this kind of dependence on external loans, we have to stay firm on the main objective of self-reliance. Self-reliance does not mean shutting out from external trade. It only means that instead of making the growth process dependent on what we do not have, we should make it depend, along with criterion of efficiency, on what we primarily have, and then, only on the basis of comparative advantages, participate in external trade. What we do not have is large sum of capital and wide powers to import. If, even after knowing this, we make our production structure overly capital-intensive and import-dependent then, given the uncertainty about exports, we will be repeatedly forced to take external loans and eventually get into the external debt-trap as we find ourselves in now. On the other hand, what we have in abundance is the human and local natural resources. The specific meaning of self-reliance in our context will be to decide how far indeed the basic needs of the common people can be satisfied by efficiently using these resources domestically, combining these with the socially necessary capital, and then only decide the extent to which we shall participate in trade, depending on a clear idea of priority and comparative advantage and disadvantage of trade. Instead of the present policy of indiscriminate imports, we are proposing participation in imports and exports from a position of self-respect and strength based on self-reliance. 4. We may like to be careful about the choice of technology in production. Our need is for an improved technology which will be modem and, at the same time, capable of making fuller and efficient utilisation of abundant manpower and local resources. We would remain open to new ideas on technology from abroad, but accept or adopt them, after suiting local conditions and social situation. In order that we can retain this independence of choice regarding technology, we remain firmly opposed to the Dunkel proposal of intrusion into our patent laws relating to intellectual property rights. The Dunkel proposal of control of intellectual property rights would also mean fresh intrusion of imported items into the domestic market. 5. We think that if there is political will, it is indeed possible to reduce in an alternative way the Central fiscal deficit. In fact, if only a fraction of the annual accrual of black money (estimated at least Rs. 50 thousand crores) is properly unearthed, then it is possible to reduce the Central fiscal deficit very significantly, without jacking up the administered prices of essential items, or restricting the scope of public distribution system, or making assaults on the small-savings-based resources of the State, or selling the shares of profitable public sector units or increasing the burden of external debts.