The State Cabinet has approved the draft annual Plan of ₹26,500 crore for the State for 2017-18, an improvement from the current year by ₹2,500 crore.
With the addition of ₹8,038.95 crore in Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the gross annual Plan comes up to ₹34,538.95 crore.
A meeting of the State Planning Board held on January 31 had referred the Plan for the consideration of the Cabinet.
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In tune with the key role accorded to local self-government institutions under the second phase of the People’s Plan Campaign, 23.5% of the draft annual Plan or ₹6,227.5 crore will be devolved to them next fiscal. This is 13.23% higher than the current year’s allotment of ₹5,500 crore.
The tribal sub plan gets ₹751.08 crore, which is 2.83% of the Plan, although the share of the beneficiary population is only 1.45% as per the 2011 census.
Similarly, the allocation to the Department of Scheduled Caste Development at ₹2,599.65 crore comprises 9.81% of the Plan, while the share of Scheduled Caste population is 9.1%.
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Stress on employment
The revival of production in the agricultural and industrial sectors, employment generation and skill development are the major thrust areas of the Plan, apart from support for the four projects launched by the State government under the Nava Kerala Mission, Planning Board sources told The Hindu .
The Plan aims at tackling the social exclusion of marginalised sections, including the economically backward, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women and transgenders.
A total of 43 working groups, with around 700 members, were involved in drafting the Plan.