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Govt must revise policies for 8% growth: PM

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Wednesday that the government will have to revise its policies, procedures and institutions to achieve the targeted growth rate of eight per cent during the Tenth Plan period.

"We will have to revise our policies, procedures and institutions in order to unleash the productive potential of our people. I also accept that this will require an all party consensus and political unanimity," he said in his opening remarks at the full Planning Commission meeting to finalise the approach paper for the Tenth Plan .

The government at various levels will need to reinvent itself so that its principal role becomes that of a facilitator rather than a controller of individual initiatives, he said.

The PM said the vision of attaining an eight per cent growth rate would require significant changes in the manner in which the government carries out its economic and development activities.

Vajpayee complimented the commission for responding to the challenge of raising the growth rate from six to eight per cent, but said, "even this, in my view is less than expectations that have been raised in our society in the recent past".

"Growth in itself cannot be our only development goal," he said, adding that human well-being must include not only material requirements but also access to social services, particularly health and education.

Vajpayee said that since the plan formulation was on schedule the government had enough time to forge a political consensus.

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