Government is mulling introducing provisions for removal of CBI Director who gets a fixed tenure of two years after a 1997 Supreme Court order in the Vineet Narain judgement.
A report card released on Friday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before his press conference says Government is considering several measures for greater autonomy of CBI in which one of the issues is providing provisions for removal of the Director.
'Poverty recorded steepest fall under UPA'
The poverty ratio in the country has fallen steeply during the UPA regime to 21.9 per cent in 2012 from 37.2 per cent in 2004, said the report card.
“Under the UPA government, poverty in India has declined in an unprecedented manner. Average decline in poverty was 2 per cent per annum during 2004-2012, almost twice the rate of the preceding decade,” said the report card.
It said the number of poor people came down to 26.93 crore, which was 21.9 per cent of the total population in 2012, from 40.71 crore in 2004 when the UPA government came to power.
According to the report card, the government launched 16 flagship programmes in both rural and urban areas during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), and fund allocation for them has been more than double for the 12th Five Year Plan period which began from April 2012.
The report highlights that the expenditure on flagship programme like rural employment guarantee scheme has been increased by more than 100 per cent for the 12th Plan.
The document stated that the Plan outlay for flagship schemes was increased to Rs 15,46,648 crore for the entire 12th Five Year Plan compared to Rs 6,93,347 crore spent in the 11th Plan.
The report said, “Unemployment rate in the country is steadily declining due to UPA government’s economic policies.”
Besides, it also stated that average industrial growth during the 2004-05 to 2011-12 period has been the highest ever at 8.5 per cent per annum, creating productive employment for young people.
“National Skills Development Authority has been working with other stakeholders, including the private sector, to train 50 million people for the workforce during the next five years,” it added.
India’s average economic growth rose to 7.7 per cent in the 10-year regime of the UPA government as compared to 6.2 per cent recorded in the previous decade.
GDP growth On GDP growth the report said “average GDP growth rate during the period of UPA government (2004-05 to 2013-14) has been 7.7 per cent despite two global slowdown in this period“.
Agriculture growth rate, it said, has been rising consistently and the sector expanded by 2.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent during the 10th and 11th Five Year Plans, respectively, and expected to touch 4 per cent in the ongoing 12th Plan period.
It further said the country’s GDP at the current prices has increased almost three times to Rs 100.28 lakh crore during the last nine years from Rs 32.42 lakh crore in 2004-05.
Similarly, per capita income has risen almost three-fold during the period. The per capita income has gone up to Rs 68,747 in 2012 from Rs 24,143 in 2004, the report card said.
“Per capita income has increased at an annual average of nearly 20 per cent during the last nine years, well above the consumer price index during the same period,” it said.
On rural wages, the document said it has tripled in the last year and thus improving the purchasing power of majority of people in villages.
The document said credit flow to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has grown nearly seven times in the last seven years. The outstanding loan to the MSME sector was at Rs 5.27 lakh crore in 2012 as against Rs 83,498 crore in 2005.
It said that in the last two years, 80,000 micro enterprises have been supported by Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, creating job opportunities for 9.23 lakh people.
Towards financial inclusion, the document said more people are now using bank facilities. The number of bank accounts have increased from 43.97 crore in 2004 to 77.32 crore as of last year.
