By IANS
New Delhi : Arguing that the recent growth trends in Indian economy were accompanied by worsening unemployment, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the 11th Five-Year Plan would not be able to achieve inclusive growth if agriculture is ignored.
Achuthanandan, who heads the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala, urged the central government to revive the proposal to form a Central Monetary Council – with representation from the states and the central government – to supervise the monetary exchange rate and trade policies.
“The time has come to revive this proposal to overcome the anomaly of state governments being at the receiving end of unilateral measures with little rationale which are decreed by the centre but impinge heavily on the states, including on state exchequers,” he said while addressing the 54th National Development Council (NDC) meeting here.
He said the economic growth process has affected a very large segment of the rural population adversely “even as it has increased the number of billionaires and brought some prosperity to the upper echelons of the urban middle class”.
“The growth process that Indian economy has witnessed of late has been accompanied by a distinct worsening of unemployment, disguised unemployment and underemployment (situations),” Achuthanandan said at the meeting, which is to approve the Rs.36 trillion 11th Five-Year Plan.
He said the “inclusiveness” visualised in the Plan document for the indigent agricultural population would “remain a chimera” if the agriculture sector is not taken care of.
He also said the 11th Five-Year Plan is silent on the offer of remunerative prices to farmers.
“Instead of assured procurement at remunerative prices, the document talks only of ‘greater predictability in measures designed for price stability’. In the absence of such assured remunerative prices, credit flow to small and marginal farmers will not increase.”
Achuthanandan also alleged that the Plan is “silent” on the question of social security for the unorganised sector, which constitute majority of the manufacturing sector in the country.