Assurances given to WB will be kept: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, OCT. 5. The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, today assured the World Bank that the State was committed to reforms, especially in the power sector, and subsidies reduction.

He was inaugurating the pre-launch workshop for the engineers of the Public Works Department, who will be involved in the Rs. 2,030-crore World Bank-aided project to upgrade and improve 2,300 km of State highways. The bank will provide 80 per cent of the funds.

Mr. Krishna gave the assurance to the World Bank's Task Leader for South Asia Region, Mr. Guang Z.Chen, noting that Karnataka had become the focal State for the bank in the matter of reforms. ``I assure the World Bank that we will not falter and are committed to reforms.'' He wanted Mr. Chen to convey it to the President of the World Bank, Mr. James D.Wolfensohn, who visited Bangalore last year. The assurances given to him would be kept.

Mr. Krishna acknowledged that reforms were a painful exercise, though they sounded fashionable. He noted that the project to upgrade State highways was deliberated upon for two years.

The lapses committed in the initial period by the Government in the matter of autonomy of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) and the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited were aberrations that would be corrected. They were committed as the State lacked experience.

The Government was going before the KERC as a petitioner. Some confusion still prevailed on the Government's relations with those bodies.

Without revealing his mind on increase in power tariff, Mr. Krishna noted that the Government was committed to increase it annually. But it had not been able to implement the decision. ``We took the soft option of heavy subsidies to the utility company (KPTCL).'' But how long could subsidies be continued as grim realities would stare at the State?

The Government would come out with bold plans to achieve the twin aims of strengthening the regulatory apparatus and the utility company. Besides the World Bank, the Government had committed itself to the Union Government in the matter of power sector reforms. It signed an agreement with the Centre in that regard when late Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was Union Minister for Power (in July 2000). The power subsidy would total Rs. 2,600 crores this year, and the State was negotiating in that regard with the World Bank.

On the road development project, Mr. Krishna said it was being considered as part of governance. He referred to the vision of Dewan Sir Mirza Ismail, who in the Thirties had the Mysore- Bangalore highway concreted. It became one of the first roads of that kind in the country. The southern parts of the State had better roads. He was glad the Centre had taken up the project to upgrade national highways to international standards.

Mr. Chen said that Karnataka was the first State to adopt the medium-term fiscal plan (MTFP), which was aimed at restoring fiscal stability to the State in five years. It was also aimed at garnering resources for the priority sectors such as education, health, and infrastructure, including roads.

The Government had selected the Public Works Department as a pilot department to develop a departmental MTFP to achieve the Government's goals in the infrastructure sector.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : RTC goes for 'gold' for the Great Mall
Next     : Biotech. park to be developed like industrial
           estates