E-Paper
Now, MLAs can spend rural area grant for urban areas: Haryana CM Khattar
Haryana CM Khattar who was replying to the discussion of the 2023-24 budget estimates by legislators said earlier the MLAs could only spend this grant in rural areas but now this amount can be used for the development works in urban areas as well.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday announced that MLAs can now spend an amount of ₹2 crore being given under the Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana for development works in urban areas. Khattar who was replying to the discussion of the 2023-24 budget estimates by legislators said earlier the MLAs could only spend this grant in rural areas but now this amount can be used for the development works in urban areas as well. The CM also announced to rename this scheme as Adarsh Nagar Evam Gram Yojana with the director, panchayat, being the nodal officer for it.
The chief minister also announced that the girls’ college to be constructed at Balsamand, Hisar, will be named after former chief minister Bhajan Lal of the Congress. Lal’s son, Kuldeep Bishnoi was till last year a Congress MLA from Adampur before he switched sides to join the BJP. Kuldeep’s son, Bhavya is now the BJP MLA from Adampur.
Khattar said besides already announcing 4,000 playway schools in 2022-23, an additional 4,000 playway schools would be opened in the state.
Speaking on the oft-cited debt liability on the state government, Khattar said that there were three different heads for public debt and should not be mixed up.
He said that the public sector enterprises loan amount was ₹69,922 crore in 2014-15 while it was ₹47,211 crore in 2021-22. He said that the HSVP has a pending debt of ₹14,334 crore. Out of this, about ₹6,000 crore has been settled and ₹8,334 crore was outstanding.
Likewise, the HSIIDC has a pending debt of ₹13,881 crore. Out of this, around ₹7,000 crore has been settled and ₹6,944 crore pending. The power utilities had a pending debt of more than ₹37,000 crore, which has been reduced to ₹14,800 crore, he said.
On the issue of Haryana getting less financial help from the Centre as compared to neighbouring states, the chief minister said that Centre follows a formula where a progressive state gets lesser financial grant. The financial management of Haryana is better as compared to its neighbouring states, he said
The chief minister said that before finalising the budget, suggestions from all the stakeholders were taken and 68 suggestions were incorporated in the budget document.
Khattar said besides spendings on infrastructure, a large part of the budget is spent on making systemic changes.
