The government will soon come out with guidelines for the preparation of the 2017-18 annual Plan projects for local self government bodies, LSG Minister K.T. Jaleel said in the Assembly on Monday.
The Navakeralam Mission for launching the 13th Five Year Plan as People’s Plan Campaign has already been kicked off and the government has asked all LSGs to constitute Plan committees and working groups for the preparation of the 13th Plan as well as the annual Plan, he said, replying during Question Hour.
The focus will be on urban planning, productive sectors, multi-level planning, coordination between various Plans and youth participation when the People’s Plan campaign is planned for Navakeralam, he said.
The functioning of District Plan Committees would be strengthened and the District Collectors had been asked to take a lead the committees and to monitor the functioning strictly.
Mr. Jaleel said that after 28 municipalities and one Corporation was newly formed, the new government had created 1,494 posts in LSGs. The vacancies of 19 Secretaries too had been filled through PSC.
In reply to a question by Aisha Potti, Mr. Jaleel said as the government funds alone would not be sufficient for executing all Plan projects, the government intended to integrate the funds available under various projects. It was expected that MGNREGS would get an allocation of ₹2,000 crore this year and the projects under the scheme would be integrated along with the projects of Haritha Keralam.
About ₹800 crore under MGNREGS would be available as asset creation funds and these can be effectively utilised for projects such as watershed management, water conservation and re-charging of wells, he pointed out.
In reply to a question by George M. Thomas, Mr. Jaleel said that in the next five years, the government intended to set up modern slaughterhouses, at least one for every block, which would have in-house facilities for processing slaughter waste.
Replying to A.P. Anil Kumar, he said the government had stopped the previous arrangement of buying tar for road construction works through SIDCO, in order to put an end to corrupt practices. However, steps had been taken to allow direct purchase of tar from IOC so that road works were not stalled.
