March 24, Kathmandu - The Karnali Province Planning Commission has prepared the 'First Five Year Plan'. The plan that should have been prepared a year ago has finally been prepared.

The first five-year plan unveiled by the commission includes ambitious plans to halve the multidimensional poverty of Karnali, double the per capita income, and provide access to electricity to 90 percent of the population. As per the set target, the per capita income of the citizens of Karnali will be increased to USD 1147 in FY 2024/25. At present, the per capita income of Karnali people is 606 US dollars.

The targets are to halve the 51 percent multidimensional poverty in Karnali to 25 percent, to increase the literacy rate from 66 percent to 95 percent, and to increase the economic growth rate from 5.7 percent to 14.9 percent.

The development of physical infrastructure has been given first priority to achieve the set targets. Infrastructure projects include transport, energy, settlement development, irrigation, and drinking water. The second priority is education, health, employment, social security, and the third priority is agriculture, industry, herbs, mining, forest production, and other schemes.

Similarly, investment areas have also been identified for economic prosperity. These include industry, tourism, extraction of petroleum products of Dailekh, processing of valuable herbs like Yarsagumba, Panchaonle, excavation of precious gem and stone mines, processing, and marketing.

The commission estimates that Rs 521.46 billion will be required to meet the target. But for Karnali, which has an annual budget of Rs 28-40 billion, it is challenging to raise such a large amount. That is why half of the investment depends on the public sector. The government aims to raise 53.66 percent or Rs 279.82 billion from the public sector, 42.65 percent or Rs 222.42 billion from the private sector, and 3.69 percent (19.23 billion) from the cooperative sector.

The commission has pointed out that 80 percent of the budget allocated by the state government should be implemented and infrastructure construction should be given first priority to achieve the set targets. "Karnali's prosperity is not far off if the state government follows the plan prepared by the commission," said a member of the commission. Dipendra Rokaya says, "If the budget can be implemented and investment can be mobilized, the set target can be reached."