The Union Cabinet on Friday decided to place the Eleventh Five Year Plan before the National Development Council (NDC) for approval. The NDC meeting will be held on December 19.
Announcing the decision taken at the meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on Thursday night, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters that this would enable operationalisation of the plan for the period 2007-12.
The draft plan document was cleared by the Planning Commission on November 9, with a target of nine per cent annual economic growth, up from 7.6 per cent in the Tenth Plan.
NDC, the country’s highest policy making body, comprises the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, state Chief Ministers and members of the Planning Commission.
The Plan, the most ambitious document prepared by the Commission so far, aims at raising the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate to nine per cent with an estimated outlay of Rs 36,44,147 crore.
Among other things, it also proposes to increase farm sector growth rate to 4 per cent from 2.13 per cent in the previous Plan. The Plan proposes to reduce poverty by 10 percentage points, generate 7 crore new employment opportunities and reduce unemployment among educated persons to less than 5 per cent.
It will also focus on the education sector by increasing the outlay to 19 per cent of the Central budgetary support from less than 8 per cent in the previous Plan.