Punjab seeks immediate release of Rs 1,300 cr for Nangal plant

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to release immediately one-time grant of Rs 1,300 crore for expansion of National Fertilizer Ltd's plant at Nangal.
The Punjab Chief Minister called on Jaitley here and sought his intervention to put the Rs 5,500-crore expansion project of Nangal fertiliser plant on fast track.
Badal also asked the Centre to continue Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) as a central sector scheme with 100 per cent funding, and retention of existing sharing pattern of other flagships schemes like National Health Mission, National Food Security Mission.
Badal apprised Jaitley that NFL unit's current capacity of five lakh tonnes was to be enhanced to 15 lakh tonnes as infrastructure was in place for the expansion.

The Ministry of Fertilizers has already granted approval to undertake the unit expansion as it would not only generate tremendous employment potential in the region but also meet the ever-mounting demand of urea in the state.
He also impressed upon Jaitley to get the one-time grant of Rs 1300 crore released expeditiously so that the expansion of this project could be undertaken in fast mode.

In his separate meeting with Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh , Badal apprised him that 14th Finance Commission recommended devolution of 40 per cent of the share of tax. The Centre while accepting this recommendation also identified 20 important centrally sponsored schemes including RKVY, which would now be implemented on sharing basis.

Accordingly, the sharing pattern of RKVY was proposed to be changed to 50:50 from 100 per cent centrally funded earlier. The Chief Minister pointed out that Punjab has been tentatively allocated Rs 168.27 crore under RKVY including 75 crore under Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) during this year and the state would have to contribute its equal share.
He said such a contribution by the state government may not be possible and as a result, not only many of the ongoing projects and initiatives under the schemes would have to be aborted but taking up new projects would also be adversely affected.

Badal also impressed upon Jaitley to release special funds to the tune of Rs 1,375 crore for rejuvenation of the Uppar Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) passing through the districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur as it was the oldest canal system since 1989 and was in operation for the past 126 years.
Consequently, the UBDC was working only at 13 pc efficiency as out of 13.43 lakh acres of command area, actual irrigated area was 8.47 acres and thus it was the need of the hour to immediately modernise it so as to achieve its full water carrying capacity in the border region.