Himachal CM meets PM, seeks Rs 1,900 cr in flood relief

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and requested him to provide assistance of Rs 1,972.08 crore to undertake rehabilitation work in flood affected areas of the state.
Besides financial assistance under National Disaster Response Fund, Singh also requested the Prime Minister to restore the special industrial package to the state till 2020 to expedite the industrialisation process.
During his meeting with the PM, he said the state has suffered cumulative loss of Rs 2,934 crores from heavy rains during the monsoon season which left 69 people dead.
Singh said 11,157 houses have been damaged due to landslides and a loss of Rs 200 crore was suffered by private property due to the floods.

The CM said a total of 4,519 roads suffered badly and a total loss of Rs 1,264 crore was assessed to the various road networks in the state due to flash floods. He said that water supply schemes have suffered loss of Rs 256.78 crore while agriculture crops in 20,573 hectare land worth Rs 200 crore and horticulture crops in 81,457.5 hectare land worth Rs 301.11 crore were badly damaged in the flash floods.
He informed that electricity infrastructure, government assets and fisheries departments suffered loss of Rs 474.75 crore, Rs 165 crore and Rs 6.16 crore respectively.

Singh said about 16,500 units in the small, medium and large scale sectors with proposed investment of Rs 48,830 crore and employment potential of 5,42,580 persons were approved in the state between January 6, 2003 to March 2013, of which only 9,353 units were set up with investment of Rs 14,557 crore which provided employment to 1,20,602 persons.

He said the state has made huge investment to improve infrastructure in industrial areas and told that industrial houses' interest in setting up units in the state is declining fast in absence of industrial incentives.
He said that proposal for continuation of special package is under active consideration of department of industrial policy and promotion and Planning Commission has already earmarked an outlay of Rs 500 crore for extension of this package to special category states of Himachal, Uttrakhand and Jammu and Kashmir during the 12th five year plan and requested the prime minister to sanction the special industrial incentive package to the state.

He demanded sanction of investment subsidy at the rate of 15 per cent and income tax and central excise duty exemption for 5 years and 10 years till the year 2020.
The Chief Minister demanded release of Rs 2,100 crore for financing the annual plan 2013-14 to speed up the pace of development in the state.
Prime Minister Singh appreciated the issues raised by him and assured that the Centre will provide all possible financial assistance to the state to speed up the pace of development, a statement from Himachal Pradesh government said.