State planning board to approve Rs 4.800 cr annual plan on Thursday
The state planning board is set to approve the annual plan outlay of Rs 4,800 crore for the fiscal year (FY16) for the state on Thursday.
The state planning board is set to approve the annual plan outlay of Rs 4,800 crore for the fiscal year (FY16) for the state on Thursday.
A meeting of the board would be presided over by chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who is also its chairman. Although the planning commission had been discontinued by the Centre, the state planning board continues to remain significant for Himachal Pradesh, which has proposed an annual plan of rs 4800 crore for the next fiscal, Rs 300 crore more than proposed for the last one.
A former planning official, however, told HT that the state had approved a total outlay of Rs 22800 crore for the 12th five year plan (2012-17) but after three years of implementation spent only Rs 12,200 crore, leaving rs 10,600 crore as balance outlay.
“In such case, the next two outlays should be of rs 5,300 crore each,” he said.
The former official also said five year plans have fixed annual outlays, but added that for 2014-15 it was Rs 4,500 crore, while the state proposed only Rs 4,400 crore. The former official said for FY16 the annual outlay was 5,000 crore but the state is going to approve Rs 4,800 crore, which is actually less than that approved by the 12th plan.
All cabinet ministers, vice-chairman of the planning board, chief parliamentary secretaries, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, chief secretary, chairman of the 20-point programme review committee, vice-chancellors of universities, head of the state chapter of PHD chamber of commerce, a NABARD official are members of the board.
For the current fiscal, the state's plan of Rs 4,400 crore comprises Rs 648.32 crore for power, rs 817.09 crore for transport, Rs 355.28 crore for water supply, Rs 582.55 crore for education, `539.20 for agriculture, Rs 248.62 for irrigation and flood control, Rs 279.65 crore for health, Rs 192.89 crore for rural development while the rest of the amount would be for the miscellaneous sector.