Southern States - Kerala

ADB loan in October

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 29. The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, said here on Wednesday that the agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the Rs. 2,400-crore loan for fiscal and power sector reforms in the State would materialise by October.

The Chief Minister told presspersons after a meeting with the Country Director (ADB, India), Frank Polman, the Director, Klaus Gerhaeusser, and the ADB team led by William McCarten that discussions were continuing for signing of the agreement. Major issues were to be discussed with the Central Government. The final Appraisal Mission from the ADB would reach Kerala in July.

Mr. Antony said reforms were inevitable for the creation of a new Kerala. The State was not carrying out the reforms either on a directive from the Central Government or the ADB.

He said the Government had launched the Modernising Government Programme (MGP) to draw up a broad based agenda for reforms in fiscal management, governance and decentralisation in the State. The Government intended to develop the MGP as a road map for change to help the State reverse its decline over the past in its fiscal and administrative performance and move forward along the path of sustainable development focused on poverty reduction and creating the enabling environment for growth.

He reiterated that the people would be taken into confidence in all efforts for the reforms. Transparency would be ensured. The strategy document for the MGP drawn up by the workshop attended by Government officers and experts at Kovalam from April 21 to 23, was being released for wider discussions. It was expected that the first phase of this process could be completed in May.

The Cabinet, which had only noted the document, would take decisions on it after the discussions.

He said that the Government also proposed to release various other documents relating to the loan such as the concept paper and aide memoirs in ten days through the Public Relations Department. For the first time in five years, documents relating to the ADB loan were being released now.

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