Sikkim annual plan fixed at Rs. 1,500 crore

MONTEK SINGH COMMENDS STATE GOVT’S DEVELOPMENTAL EFFORTS
GANGTOK, 13 April: Sikkim’s annual plan for the year 2012-13 was fixed at Rs. 1,500 crore today, informs a press communiqué received from the Principal Resident Commissioner, Sikkim House, New Delhi. The plan size was finalised at a meeting between Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, held at Yojana Bhawan. The Plan size grows up to Rs. 1,877 crore with the addition of Rs. 377 crore which the Planning Commission informed today it would be releasing for Sikkim from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund [against the total announcement of Rs. 1,000 crore] to assist earthquake restoration works here. The Chief Minister informed the meeting that the entire Rs. 1,000 crore package announced by the Prime Minister for undertaking various earthquake repair activities will be utilised in the state in next two years .
The Chief Minister, the press release from Delhi informs, highlighted that the plan size [not including the earthquake relief funds] is Rs. 100 crore higher than the current plan size.
Meanwhile, an update from the Press Information Bureau informs that in his comments on the performance of the State, the Deputy Chairman appreciated the “development efforts” and pointed that the human development indicators of Sikkim were among the best in the country. He said the growth in agriculture during eleventh plan was better than the national average and also made positive mention of the priority being given to organic farming, horticulture and floriculture.
As per Planning Commission data, Sikkim has achieved a growth rate of 8.95% during the 11th plan which is higher than national average.
On plan performance, it was pointed that the GSDP at Constant Prices rose from Rs. 1,73,932 in 2004-05 to Rs. 3,34,311 in 2009-10 and was likely to increase to Rs. 3,64,218 in 2010-11 showing an annual growth of 8.95 percent. Likewise the Per Capita GSDP at constant prices rose from Rs. 30,730 in 2004-05 to Rs. 55,441 in 2009-10 and likely to increase to the level of Rs. 59,806 in 2010-11 showing an annual growth of 7.87 percent.
Mr. Ahluwalia, during the plan finalisation deliberations, also commented that tourism being the largest service sector in Sikkim, had high growth potential and has attained the top priority sector due to its vast spinoff effects contributing to the overall development through sustained fiscal receipts and employment generation.
“Sikkim endowed with unparalleled natural beauty, clean environment and picturesque location is one of the most potential State for tourism sector to flourish. In Sikkim, tourism has attained a consistent growth. The proactive tourism vision of the State Government, insurgency free environment and friendly people has been one of the major factors in upsurge of tourism in the state,” the PIB release quotes the Deputy Chairman as commenting.
Mr. Ahluwalia, also recognised that the general trends in rural development over the last two decades indicated that human development indicators like literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality, access to health, sanitation and rural infrastructure like roads, bridges, electricity, water, toilets, houses, school, hospitals, telecommunication etc. has been increasingly universalized. However, there was a declining trend in terms of relative contribution of agricultural sector to the economy and also as an employer, he pointed out.
Briefing the Commission, the Chief Minister is reported to have detailed that over the past two decades, the State has adopted the path of sustainable development, working in pursuit of developing the rural areas at par with the towns by providing all basic and modern amenities and sustainable employment opportunities in rural areas. The aim, he said, was to develop Sikkim as an “eco-city State”.
He also highlighted that the September 2011 earthquake had caused extensive damage to the infrastructure and setback the development process here. The developmental programmes, he stressed, can only be successful with liberal financial assistance from the Government of India in the 12th Five Year Plan and particularly in the Annual Plan 2012-13.
On the various schemes launched in recent years by the State, the CM highlighted the CM’s Free Scholarship programme under which the state was offering full scholarship to Sikkim students enrolled in the top-20 international universities of the world. On similar lines, Sikkim has launched a unique scheme called the Chief Minister’s Merit Scholarship Scheme under which students enrolled in government schools in rural Sikkim, upon selection on merit, were being funded to study at prestigious public and convent schools like Scindia School, Springdales School [Dehradun] and Pinegrove School [HP] etc. A budget of around Rs. 7 crore has been provided in current financial year and target has been fixed to sponsor 1,000 Sikkim students to reputed schools in the country by the year.
Detailing the various initiatives undertaken by the State Government like the CATCH programme and the Mission Kutcha House Free Sikkim, the CM briefed the Commission that State was confident of generating an annual revenue of Rs. 1,500 crore from the hydel sector in three years time. Tourism too was receiving special focus in the State and showing good results with 10 lakh tourists having visited Sikkim in 2011, having doubled from the 4.9 lakh visitors recorded in 2006. The target now is to attract 5 million tourist by the year 2015, the CM said, stressing that this would happen with better planning , aggressive publicity and world class tourism infrastructure.

Poverty in Sikkim drops from 30.9% in 2004 to 13.1% in 2009-10

GANGTOK, 21 March [IPR]: The new poverty official estimates for 2009-2010 released by the Planning Commission, Government of India, on 19 March, reveals that the present State government has been very successful in reducing poverty in the State. Even the National Planning Commission, in a press communiqué issued yesterday, attests to as much by including Sikkim in the list of State where the rate of poverty reduction has been higher than average. Interestingly, the poverty levels in some of the other northeaster states [Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland] has increased in the period covered [from 2004-05 to 2009-10], the data reveals. The poverty estimates have been calculated based on the methodology suggested by the Tendulkar Committee with estimates from NSS 66th round of consumer expenditure based on 2009-10 prices.
In 2004-2005, the poverty level in Sikkim stood at 30.9% with 1,70,000 people living below the poverty line. Due to the intensive poverty alleviation programmes initiated by the State Government, the poverty level has been brought down to 13.1% with only 80,000 people now living below the poverty line.
The poverty level has significantly reduced in both urban and rural areas. In 2004, the level in rural area was 31.8% with 1,50,000 people living Below Poverty Line. The BPL in urban areas was 25.9% with 20,000 people living below the Poverty Line. This level has drastically reduced to 5% in urban areas [with only 10,000 people now living below poverty line] and in rural areas, the level has fallen to 15.5% with the BPL number at 70,000.
The percentage of BPL in Sikkim is half of the National average of 29.8%. The level of 15.5% in rural areas is also half of the national level of 33.8% for the segment. The State urban level of 5% of urban areas is one fourth of the National level of 20.9%. The latest poverty estimates data clearly shows that the State government is well within its goal of declaring Sikkim as poverty free state.
The Tendulkar Committee recommended use of implicit prices derived from quantity and value data collected in household consumer expenditure surveys for computing and  updating the poverty lines. The poverty line is thus defined in terms of per capita consumption expenditure on a monthly basis and can be also converted into a corresponding consumer budget per month.
The national average for the Tendulkar poverty line has been worked out to Rs. 672.8 per month per person for rural India and Rs. 859.6 per month per person for urban areas. For Sikkim, this has been calculated to Rs. 728.9 per person for rural areas and Rs. 1035.2 per person per month for urban Sikkim. For a family of five, the poverty line for Sikkim is thus drawn at Rs. 3644.5 per month in rural Sikkim and Rs. 5,176 for a family of five per month in urban areas.
The Tendulkar poverty line, it may be recalled, has been criticised on the grounds that it is too low, and therefore, under-estimates the scale of the population that needs special assistance. To this, the National Planning Commission has defended that “any poverty line is essentially arbitrary and the Planning Commission has only accepted the line recommended by the Tendulkar Committee”.
“We have also indicated that the line will be revised from time to time based on the recommendations of experts,” the NPC adds in an official press release.
The real purpose of estimating a population below a fixed poverty line is to judge whether progress is being made over time. For this purpose, the poverty line must be the same over time and updated to reflect price changes on the basis of an established methodology. If a higher poverty line is used, the absolute number of people below the line will obviously be larger. However, the results regarding trends in poverty will not be altered, the Planning Commission explains further.

State Planning Commission discusses 12th Plan and Annual Plan 2012-13

GANGTOK, 20 Dec [IPR]: Deputy Chairman, State Planning Commission, SM Limboo chaired a meeting of the State Planning Commission (SPC) in which the Development Commissioner, AK Yadav and all the Officers of the DPERNECAD were present.