The State Government has approved annual plan outlay of 5200 crore for the year 2016-17 which is 8.33 percent higher than the size of Annual Plan of 2015-16. This was disclosed in the meeting of State Planning Board held here today chaired by Chief Minister,Virbhadra Singh.Of the total annual plan, 1309.88, which is 25.19 percent of the Annual Plan size, have been approved for the Schedule Castes Sub-Plan for the implementation of the schemes benefitting Schedule Caste population. Likewise, 9 percent of funds amounting to 468 crore have been provided for the Tribal Area sub-plan and for the declared backward areas, an outlay of 65 crore have been approved under development heads of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry, irrigation, roads, education and health etc.
The Chief Minister said that the government had adopted election manifesto as its policy document and had fulfilled all the promises within the three years of its present regime. Not only that the government had worked even beyond as to what was promised, he added.He said that the social service sector had been given priority in the Annual Plan 2016-17 and an allocation of 1992 crore had been proposed for this vital sector, which is 38.31 percent of the plan size.In the order of priority, a sum of 979.04 crore has been proposed for transport and communication services, which is 18.83 percent of the Annual Plan size.The Chief Minister said energy sector was also on priority list of the government for which a provision of 683 crore (which is 13.13 percent of plan size) had been proposed which includes loan and equity to Asian Development Bank (ADB) assisted projects implemented by State Power Corporation limited and HP Power Transmission Corporation limited. For agriculture and allied sectors annual plan proposes a sum of 586 crore which is 11.26 percent of the plan size. This mainly consists of externally aided projects and the schemes which fall under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY).
The Chief Minister said that the State government was endeavouring to bring more people between the age groups of 15 to 45 years under the ambit of Skill Development Scheme and a sum of 640 crore had been approved by Government of India (GoI) which would provide impetus to skill development efforts of the State government. The Government has constituted Himachal Pradesh Kaushal Vikas Nigam to achieve convergence of different training programmes being run by various departments which aims at providing best available placement opportunities to upcoming labour force along-with vocational training facilities to the unemployed youth to enhance their skills.
Shri Virbhadra Singh said it was a matter of great concern that a sum of 3000 crore which the State government use to get from GoI under normal and special central assistance and Special Plan Assistance every year had been stopped. The State government constantly raised the matter with Union government as well as with National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog not to reduce the central share in the centrally sponsored schemes for special category states which includes Himachal Pradesh and also for retaining the pattern of all centrally sponsored schemes at 90:10. Though the core schemes which form part of National Development Agenda, will be shared in 90:10 (Centre: State) ratio but the sharing pattern for many other optional schemes will be shared in 80:20, as per the recommendation made by the sub-groups of Chief Ministers in the meeting of NITI Ayog, said the Chief Minister.It was also disclosed in the meeting that the public sector job ratio in the state is 28% which is higher than the neighbouring states as it was 11 % in Punjab, 12% in Bihar, 14% in Haryana and 10% in Uttar Pradesh.
Suggestions were received to enhance the budget outlay in tourism sector as tourism and hydel generation were the backbone of the economy of the state. Suggestions also poured in to adopt Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) norms for roads. The government should add a liability/penalty clause in the agreement for construction/maintenance of roads or other projects. The Chief Minister took serious view of the haphazard cable laying on both sides of the roads thereby leading to mishaps. He said that the contracts should be given on merits of the contractors.Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Smt. Vidya Stokes, Health Minister, Shri Kaul Singh Thakur, Transport Minister, Shri G.S. Bali, Agriculture and MPP Minister, Shri Sujan Singh Pathania, Urban Development Minister, Shri Sudhir Sharma, Excise and Taxation Minister, Shri Prakash Chaudhary, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil, Co-operative Minister, Shri Karan Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, MLAs, Deputy-Chairman, Planning Board, Shri Gangu Ram Musafir, Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of various boards and corporations were also present amongst the senior officers of the state government.