Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 21, 2007
Past failures to eradicate poverty had resulted
in a number of problems including Left-wing extremism, Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar said on Friday. Kumar was addressing a seminar on "Revisiting
the Poverty
Issue: Measurement, Identification and Eradication".
Referring to the 15year RJD rule, Kumar said: "We are now looking forward with hope and determination to make a difference to the quality of people's lives."
Branding poverty as the "single most important challenge", Kumar said his govt intended to achieve the millennium development goals of halving the number of those living below the poverty line by 2015.The state's approach paper to the 11th Five Year Plan envisaged an average 8.5 per cent GDP growth.
"Efforts are also being made to further improve the climate for private investments," he said. The NDA Government's decision to rationalise the system and encourage quick decisions resulted in a planned expenditure of Rs 8,646 crore in 2006-7 against the outlay of Rs 8,250 crore and previous year's expenditure of Rs 4,465 crore.
As a result of his Government's initiatives, he said the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other major financial institutions were negotiating loans for key infrastructure. He said any attempt to play down the extent of prevalent poverty would cause grave injustice to the poor.