Chief Minister,Virbhadra Singh today called on Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram at North Block, New Delhi and requested him to provide special assistance for various on going developmental projects in the State.Kaul Singh Thakur, Revenue Minister and Mukesh Agnihotri, Industries Minister accompanied the Chief Minister in the meeting.Virbhadra Singh requested the Union Minister to provide Rs. 500 crore to the State for strengthening the infrastructural network in the State. He requested for declaring the Chandigarh-Baddi new Railways line as Project of National importance keeping in view of its geographical and strategical importance. He said that survey of this new Railway line had been completed and added that this new Railway line would facilitate the movement of goods and services from the industrial areas of the State. He said that State Government was willing to provide all necessary support and infrastructure for setting up this new Railway line.
Chief Minister said that the Central team had visited the State to assess the flood losses and has submitted its report to the Union Government. He requested the Union Government to expedite the process of the report and release the funds for undertaking various socio-economic and development projects in the flood affected areas .He requested the Union Finance Minister to start construction work on Bhanupalli-Bilaspur Railway line as per the decision taken in Prime Ministers office on 8th August, 2007 in which it was agreed to fund the project in the pattern of 75:25 between Railway and the State Government. He said that so far only 44 kms of the Rail line had been constructed in the State since independence and requested the Union Minister to provide adequate funds to Railways projects in the State.
Shri Virbhadra Singh requested for uniform funding on the pattern of North Eastern, Special Category States in the ratio of 90:10 between the Central Government and the State Government for all the centrally sponsored schemes and requested for issuing necessary directions to all the Central Government Ministries and departments. Chief Minister requested for extension of industrial package in the State keeping in view of the industrial backwardness and difficult topography and geography of the State. He told that process of industrialization had moved ahead with the industrial package and requested to extend the package till the year 2020.
He told that the industrial investment in the neighbouring States had not adversely affected due to incentives to Himachal Industries and told that the proposal of around 48000 crores industrial investment were received by the Government during the industrial package, however only investment of around 14000 crore had been made by the industrial houses in the State. He requested for the release of 2100 crore SPA /SCA for the Annual Plan of 2013-14 keeping in view of the financial constrains of the State Government. He told that the Planning Commission had agreed to enhance the SPA/ SCA for the plan period and requested the Union Finance Ministry to provide sufficient funding to plan panel to enhance the SPA/SCA to the State.