Tripura Plan size pegged at Rs 4,500 cr

AGARTALA, July 6? Planning Commission has pegged an outlay of Rs 4500 crore for Tripura under the 10th Five -year Plan. The State government?s demand was Rs 6908.25 crore. Earlier, the Planning Commis-sion sought to allocate Rs 3080 crore without any discussion with the State government. During 9th Five Year Plan period the plan size for the State was Rs 2577.39 crore. The increase in the plan allocation from that of previous plan period stands at Rs 1922.61 crore. The 10th Five Year Plan size was finalised yesterday at a meeting between Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant in New Delhi, said an official statement.

The State government had earlier taken strong exception to the Plan panel?s decision to allocate only Rs 3080 crore for Tripura and pressed the centre to increase the allocation. Chief Minister accompanied by Chief Secretary V Thulasidas and other senior officers today held a meeting with the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant and other senior officer to finalise the plan size for the State, Rs 9001 crore a year. The hike in the Plan allocation from what was earlier envisaged by the Plan Panel makes it clear that the Chief Minister succeeded to convince Pant to increase the six by Rs 1420 crore. The Chief Minister, also met Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, and pressed for early commissioning of Kumarghat Manu section of the railway line as well as completion of manu Agartala section, Sarkar pressed for early sanction of Agartala- Sabroom railways line as well as for connectivity between Agartala and Akhaura. He requested the Railway Minister to improve the availability of Meter Gauge railway line or transporting essential items like rice, sugar, etc., from Lumding to Churaibari. Nitish Kumar is learnt to have assured that the Kumarghat-Manu line would be commissioned within 2002 with regards to Manu-Agartala section of the rail line. The railway Minister assured that all possible efforts shall be made to complete it at the earliest. He mentioned that for this work funds would not be allowed to become a constraint. In fact, he stated that instructions were being issued in this regard. With regard to Agartala-Sabroom line, the Railway Minister assured that he would look the matter sympathetically and instructed to submit all details to him immediately. The Railway Minister further states that as soon as Bangladesh completed the survey of their part of the line, there would be no dearth of funding and constructing the railway line on the Indian side of the Agartala-Akhaura lines. The Railway Minister also assured that adequate number of rates to meet the full requirement of Tripura would be made available for carrying essential commodities.