Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

State. Performance and States' contribution to the nation have to get due
consideration to encourage the States to perform better and progress further.
Perhaps, Goa is the only State in the country to get tourists twice the resident
population. Similarly, mining has created major environmental degradation in terms
of air and water pollution, degradation of agriculture fields, high incidence of
morbidity in the mining belt and damage to roads and other infrastructure. Thus,
both Tourism and Mining have brought tremendous pressure on the infrastructure of
the State. These two sectors are mainly responsible for significant
contribution to the nation both in terms of cental taxes and foreign exchange earnings.
Sir, our objective of Eleventh Five Year Plan will be moving towards faster
and more inclusive growth with emphasis on technology driven good governance,
social security, agriculture and allied sectors, improving the standards of education
and health care services, environmental up-gradation and infrastructure
development in various sectors. The State has already prepared road map for egovernance.
Goa has been selected by the Ministry of information, Communication
and Technology as the best IT governed State in the western region of India. The
State has launched an ambitious plan for broad band connectivity to each household
and for simultaneous establishment of State portal, State data centre and 208 integrated
citizen data centres under PPP format. E-Governance related work has been given
good momentum which will have interface with broad band connectivity, state
portal, data centre and citizen data centres. Therefore, the face of Governance in the
State is expected to witness a sea of change in near future.
Sir, some times due to common guidelines prescribed under Central
Schemes, we find it difficult to implement them, so, there is a need to evolve
State specific guidelines based on local conditions.
Government of Goa has enacted the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Managment (FRBM) Act 2006 which sets the target to reduce revenue deficit to
NIL and to bring down the ratio of fiscal deficit to Gross State Domestic
Product (GSDP) to 3% by 31st March, 2009. The state has already achieved the
target of "Zero" revenue deficit and the fiscal deficit is reduced to 3% of Gross
State Domestic Product during 2007-08. However, the Sixth Pay Commission
liability of about Rs.800 crores (including arreas from 1.1.2006) and annual
liability of Rs. 350 crores on account of increase in salaries and pension will
have a severe impact on the finances of State. Thus pushing the State back to
revenue deficit and higher fiscal deficit and severely affecting the socio-economic
development projects, necessitating the higher allocation in Central Grants.
Prime Minister, Sir, I conclude with the solemn assurance to the Council
that we in Goa are fully committed to make it a model of peaceful co-existence,
an ideal State where each and everyone shares the fruits of peace and prosperity.
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