Bangalore, August 27
The Planning Commission has accessed a Rs 120,000 -crore investment in order to six -lane the entire golden quadrilateral in the country, besides mooting a new thrust on freight carriage by the Railways through dedicated freight corridors.

In an interaction with the Bangalore Chamber for Commerce and Industry today, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said whereas the National Highways Authority of India had spent Rs 35,000 crore till now, it needed to spend Rs 120,000 crore in the next five to six years to six -lane the quadrilateral. This could be done through public investment or on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.

The Deputy Chairman said the Central Government was also in the process of finalising a model concession agreement under which 45 per cent of the project would be covered by a capital grant. The government was likely to award 30 projects on a BOT basis this year of which 18 had been awarded already. He said six -laning of the entire quadrilateral was also proposed by inviting bids under BOT agreements.

About the likely change in thrust on the railway front, Dr Ahluwalia said in the past passenger freight had been subsidised at the cost of freight. Giving the example of China, he said the country’s railways was carrying as many passengers as India at the start of the nineties but now China’s freight- carrying capacity had increased four to five times vis- a -vis India.

He said the Planning Commission hoped to set this balance right and had proposed dedicated freight corridors on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi- Calcutta lines. He said the Railways had started feasibility studies for the two corridors and work on the project was likely to start by the end of 2009.

Dr Ahluwalia also disclosed that the Planning Commission had done a mid- term appraisal of the Tenth Plan which had revealed that the target of 8.1 per cent growth rate had not been achieved till now. He said there were hopes that the growth rate would climb to above 7 per cent due to recent significant increases in saving rates, besides restructuring in Indian industry.

While the industry was still likely to see sustained growth, the Deputy Chairman said, the appraisal of the agricultural sector had been very disappointing. He said agriculture, which had seen a growth of 3.3 per cent from 1980 to 1996, was now witnessing a growth rate of only around 1 per cent. He said it was imperative for state governments to diversify to non -grain sectors, establish links from the farmer to the market, get farmers to produce for the market and establish infrastructure, including cold chains.

Petro prices: The Deputy Chairman claimed that a further price adjustment was needed in the petroleum prices to peg them with the international prices. He said the recent adjustment was much less than the increase in the petroleum prices worldwide. He said people should be educated that petroleum was a product imported by the country and that they would have to pay the ongoing international price for it.

Thiruvananthapuram, August 27
On a rare trip to the Communist stronghold of Kerala, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said notwithstanding the relationship in Delhi her party would not slacken its opposition to the Left parties who she described as “our opponents” in the state.

On her first visit after the split of the party in the state with veteran K. Karunakaran launching his own outfit recently, she said it was absolutely essential to subordinate individual ambitions to the larger interests of the party and interests of the UDF coalition it headed.

“We (the Congress and the Left) are working together at the Centre in our ideological struggle against communal forces like BJP and RSS. I want to make it clear that here in Kerala we are opponents of the LDF. Our party has quite a separate agenda,” she said addressing a well-attended public meeting marking the conclusion of the 22-day road campaign of KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala.

Attacking the Communists in Kerala, where Assembly elections are due early next year along with another Left stronghold of West Bengal, Mrs Gandhi said the Congress did not believe in creating obstructions in the path of economic development whether the party was in power or not 

Earlier in the morning, she said at another function that “it may appear contradictory that while we get the support of the Left parties at the Centre we are opposed to the Left in Kerala. But there is no contradiction as the national challenges are different from those in Kerala where the policies and programmes of the UDF can lead to development.

New Delhi, August 27
The CPM has urged the UPA regime and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in particular to come out clear on the caveat issued by him for the successful implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, which has been passed by both Houses of Parliament and would now be sent to the President for his assent to become an Act.

The Prime Minister, intervening in the debate on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, had stated that if the economy continued to grow at the rate of 8 per cent per annum, then the employment guarantee programme and the other programmes like Bharat Nirman could be financed without any problem.

“This is a dangerous caveat. If for some reason growth fails to reach the target then this scheme could well be in jeopardy. This cannot be allowed,” the editorial in CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy said.

It said the Prime Minister sought to justify the reforms of liberalisation and privatisation as saying these were necessary to achieve the targeted growth levels. Specifically, he mentioned that larger inflow of foreign investment, curtailing or in general targeting subsidies are necessary to protect the public sector. While doing so he hinted at the necessity to hike petroleum prices in order to protect the oil public sector giants.

“In other words, we are being led to believe that the successful implementation of the employment guarantee act is conditional upon the implementation of neo-liberal reforms. If this be the case, then the people must brace themselves to face a further onslaught on their livelihood which is likely to come through cuts in subsidies and hikes in prices,” the CPM said.

“If this is to be accompanied by further attacks on their livelihood through the measures suggested by the Prime Minister, then clearly the government is giving from the left hand and taking from the right hand. This is simply not acceptable,” the editorial said.

Kolkata, August 27
Veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu has strongly pleaded that the left parties should reverse their boycott decision of the UPA’s co-ordination committee and demanded that from now they should participate in the meetings in formulating the Centre’s policy making decisions.

Talking to mediapersons at the Alimuddin Street party office today, Mr Basu feared that the prevailing strain relations between the Manmohan Singh government and the left parties might lead to the fall of the government which would create a fresh opportunities for the BJP and other communal forces to come to power again.

He demanded that the left parties should immediately resolve their differences and misunderstandings with Ms Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister and once again take part in the UPA’s co-ordination committee meetings they had been boycotting for the past several months.

Mr Basu said all secular parties should ensure that the Congress-led government at the Centre survived for a full five-year term for saving the nation from the hands of the BJP and other communal parties which had already done a tremendous damage to the country’s unity and integrity.

The former Chief Minister said he wanted that the matter should be raised and discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the CPM politburo and the central committee in the Capital.

Mr Basu said a section in the CPM leadership, including Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Mr Sitaram Yechuri and Mr Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee, also favoured that they should maintain good and friendly relations with the UPA government, though they differed much politically and ideologically with the Congress.

Mr Basu said he was happy that the Chief Minister had been following the right path in inviting foreign investments in Bengal. But he strongly opposed the decision of transferring the agricultural land to industries. He also did not approve of the decision of handing over of 5,100 acres of agricultural lands in south 24-parganas to Indonesia’s Salim Group of Industries.

Vellore, August 27
The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu today urged the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to bring 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the party’s zonal conference, which began here.

The resolution, which was among the 60 passed on the first day of the two-day conference, said sub-reservation could be considered later.

Another resolution demanded that the Centre, in which the DMK-led DPA is a key constituent, should bring in amendments to the Constitution providing for a wholesome and genuine federalism.

‘’India is a country of diverse culture with a number of languages. If the unity of the country is to be intact, the Constitution should be amended’’, the resolution added. The UPA Government at the Centre should take immediate steps in this direction, it said.

Through another resolution, the DMK demanded early implementation of the Chennai-New Delhi freight corridor along with the Mumbai-Delhi and Kolkata-Delhi corridors. — UNI

Jaipur, August 27
Emotive factors apparently played a significant part in resolving the water disputes between Rajasthan and MP when Chief Ministers of the two states met here to hold the meeting of the inter-state Irrigation and Power Control Board on Thursday.

MP Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur was obviously overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude when he observed that the credit of making whatever he was today went to the late Vijaya Raje Scindia, mother of Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, whom Mr Gaur frequently addressed as Maharani Sahiba during the deliberations. It was evident because of Raje’s persuasion that the board agreed to extend the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link up to Banas river on the lines of MoU signed by UP and MP in respect of Ken and Betwa rivers of the two states yesterday morning. Proposal to this effect would be put up before the national water development agency for further action at their end.

The meeting of the control board which was also attended by top officials of the two states besides the Chief Ministers, cleared as many as nine projects covering a wide range of controversial issues. These had hitherto remained pending with the Central Water Power Commission for want of approval by the Madhya Pradesh Government.