First Five-Year Plan (1956-1960)

a) Objectives:

• Increase food production.
• Provide employment opportunities.
• Create an infrastructure and simple rules for implementing the plan, and
• Lay down an economic base for successive plans, so as to increase the socio-economic base of the people.

b) Priorities:

• Topmost priority to the development of infrastructure such as transportation and communication.
• Second priority was accorded to agriculture and village development.
• Irrigation, power and social services received third priority.
• Industries and mining received fourth priority.

c) Financing:

• In this plan the total outlay was roughly estimated at Rs. 330 million of which 214.0 million Rs. was spent.
• During this period, more than 90 per cent of the total development expenditure was met by foreign aid.

d) Achievements:

• The overall performance of the plan was disappointing.
• Satisfactory achievements could not be obtained in the areas such as roads, electricity, industry, education, health, airfield construction and postal services.
• It created awareness to the people about the plan and its role in development and provided a lot of experience to the planners.

Table: First Plan: Targets and Achievements in Agriculture

Sources: Lohani

e) Obstacles/ Problems

• Absence of statistical data necessary for planning.
• Scarcity of trained manpower/personnel and inefficiency of administrative machinery,
• Lack of clearly defined objectives and targets, appropriate policy measures, and
• Political instability and frequent changes in government