NDC meeting on Feb 19
Construction of 6 lines cleared
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — The Centre today decided to convene a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) on February 19 to finalise the draft Ninth Five-Year-Plan.

Apart from finalising the draft Plan, already approved by the Union Cabinet last month, the NDC will also decide on a suitable criteria for allocation of funds under major rural poverty alleviation programmes, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan told mediapersons after a meeting of the Cabinet here.

It was also approved that the NDC would discuss matters related to transfer of centrally sponsored schemes to states, including the schemes to be transferred, the timing and modalities of the transfer and role of Panchayati Raj institutions in such schemes.

The NDC was expected to hold a discussion on administered prices, Mr Mahajan said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs met today and cleared a proposal of the Railways Ministry for electrification of the Ludhiana-Amritsar line. The electrification of the 135-km stretch was expected to cost Rs 79 crore.

Another proposal cleared by the CCEA included a Railways proposal to entrust the work of construction of a railway line from Qazigund to Baramula in Jammu and Kashmir to IRCON International, a Government of India undertaking.

Railways Minister Nitish Kumar said the Qazigund-Baramula section would form part of the construction of the railway line between Baramula and Udhampur. Construction on the Udhampur-Katra section and the Katra-Qazigund section would be undertaken later.

Mr Nitish Kumar said it was also decided that IRCON would entrust main works like construction of bridges in the valley to major companies on a limited tender basis and other works would be awarded to Kashmir contractors. The Railways would provide special incentives for people working on the project and the employees would be given air travel facilities between Srinagar and Jammu. The Railways would also insure every employee for a sum of Rs 15 lakh and provide free board, lodging and transport facilities.

The CCEA cleared the construction of six lines spread over Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam and four gauge conversions. The doubling of the Yesvantpur-Tumkur line was also cleared.

The Union Cabinet also approved the decision of the ruling coalition Coordination Committee’s decision to roll back prices of essential commodities supplied through ration shops for below poverty line consumers.

Union Food Minister Surjit Singh Barnala said the rollback would cost the government Rs 692 crore and the subsidy on foodgrain and sugar would come down to Rs 6300 crore from Rs 8500 crore.

On the decision to increase the price of sugar supplied through the PDS by 60 paise to Rs 12 a kg, Mr Barnala said the government would continue to incur a subsidy of 22 paise per kg of sugar and the sugar subsidy bill would come down from Rs 647 crore to Rs 275 crore.

Mr Barnala said the closing stocks of sugar as on December 31, 1998, was 61 lakh tonnes and it was estimated that the total production would touch 150 lakh tonnes. With consumption estimated at 145 lakh tonnes, the government hoped to export sugar this year, Mr Barnala said.

He said the availability of wheat and rice was also comfortable and there was 25 million tonnes of foodgrain in the central pool as against the buffer requirement of 18 million tonnes.

The Cabinet approved the increase in the price of urea by 9.28 per cent. Mr Barnala said even after the increase in the price of urea by Rs 400 per tonne, urea prices were one of the cheapest in the world. In Nepal, urea was being sold for Rs 4990 per tonne as against Rs 4000 in India. In Bangladesh the cost of urea was Rs 5093 per tonne, Iran Rs 7000 a tonne and in China Rs 11000 a tonne.

Another decision taken by the Cabinet was on transfer of 150,000 shares of Spices Trading Corporation to the STC at the rate of Rs 182 per share. The transfer of Rs 2.5 crore worth of shares would be completed within a year, Mr Mahajan said.

Looking at the shortage of currency coins in the country and the recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India, the Cabinet decided to import one billion coins of Re 1, two and five denomination during 1999-2000. These coins would be imported in the ratio of 3:3:4.

The CCEA decided to raise the minimum support price of copra. The price of milling copra, which constitutes 92 per cent of the commodity, had been raised by Rs 200 from Rs 2900 to Rs 3100 per quintal. Another variety, ball copra, had been increased from Rs 3215 to Rs 3315 per quintal.

The CCEA also approved a revival scheme for North-Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation at a cost of Rs 10.36 crore.

The capital restructuring of Mazagon Docks was approved.

The CCEA decided to delicense under the Industries Development and Regulation Act, 1951, five bulk drugs — Vitamin B1, B2, tetracycline, oxytetracycline and folic acid. The CCEA also decided to dereserve the five bulk drugs at present reserved for exclusive manufacture by public sector undertakings. India imports its entire requirement of these drugs.