)
The Planning Commission approved an outlay of Rs 27,072 crore for Haryana's Annual Plan for the year 2013-14 . The outlay includes an amount of Rs 7,513 crore for State Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) and Rs 1,559 crore for local bodies to be met from their own resources. The Net State Plan outlay, excluding PSEs and local bodies comes to Rs 18,000 crore, which is an increase of 24 per cent over the last year's Rs 14,500 crore.
This was finalided in a meeting between Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia at Yojana Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday.
The social services sector has been given the highest priority in 2013-14. An outlay of Rs 9,795.12 crore (54.42 per cent) has been allocated for the Social Services which is 26 per cent higher than the previous year's allocation. An amount of Rs 398.40 crore has been set apart for the Women and Child Development Programmes, mainly for the construction for the Aganwadis.
An outlay for Education including Technical Education will be Rs 3,191.83 crore (17.73 per cent). For improving infrastructure in Health Sector and for opening of Medical Colleges in the State, an outlay of Rs 925.69 crore has been earmarked, which is 63.4 per cent higher than the outlay during 2012-13. For investment in Sports Infrastructure and promotion of Sports, an outlay of Rs 100 crore has been kept. For augmenting the drinking water supply and improving the sanitation an outlay of Rs 715.78 crore has been provided.
The second highest priority has been accorded to the development of infrastructure of irrigation, power, roads and road transport and projects under the economic stimulus package. An amount of Rs. 965.09 crore is allocated for power, Rs. 994 crore for irrigation, Rs. 1741.50 for Road and Transport and Rs. 850 crore under Economic Stimulus Package. Agricultural and allied activities sector has been given its due priority by allocating an amount Rs. 1325.50 crore to this sector. Rs. 1450.40 crore has been allocated to rural development and Rs. 500 crore has been allocated to District Plan. An amount of Rs. 34 crore has been set apart for the Development of Mewat and Sivalik areas. Under the Schedule Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) an amount of Rs. 3729.51 crore (20.72 per cent) has been proposed against the 19.35 per cent SC population in the State.
Mr Hooda said that for providing affordable housing to weaker sections of the society, an ambitious scheme - Priyadarshini Awaas Yojna for rural areas is proposed to be launched from this year. Initially two lakh families will be covered during two years. Financial assistance of Rs. 90,100 will be provided for the construction of new house. The Government has decided that the Building Construction Workers Cess Fund will be utilized to strengthen the infrastructure including dispensaries, poly clinics, anganwaris, primary schools and public health facilities etc. in areas largely populated by construction workers. About Rs. 1000 crore is expected to be available during two years period under this Fund.
Hooda said that a major portion of indirect taxes accrues from the Service Tax and the GST will take some more time. Therefore, some of the services should be transferred to the States for levy and appropriation of service tax. About CST compensation for 2011-12, he said that it should be resolved expeditiously. The State has still not received compensation of Rs. 3000 crore on this account.
He requested the Planning Commission to intervene in the rationalization of the existing methodology of fixation of MSP and recommended that MSP should be fixed at 50 per cent more than the cost of production.
Hooda said that the State government is bearing a very high subsidy cost of more than Rs. 4500 crore every year to protect the farm sector in the interest of food security of the nation, therefore a package of assistance should be announced in order to compensate the State government. On the issue of allocation of new coal blocks to the power utilities, he said that Haryana should be considered on priority, since the State is deprived of both hydro and thermal resources. On the issue of National Investment Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs), he requested the Planning Commission to intervene and see that land area requirement of 5,000 hectares is scaled down to 1,000 hectares for smaller states like Haryana.
Hooda said that Haryana is witnessing rapid urbanization. Growth rate in urban areas is over 44 per cent as compared to about 10 per cent for rural areas. He requested that Central assistance should be augmented for urban infrastructure. He particularly requested that Gurgaon town should be covered under JNNURM, as its population has reached to about 9.5 lakh. Kurukshetra town, being a religious city, should also be included under JNNURM.
About education Mr Hooda said that State is giving highest priority to the education and is implementing RTE Act. 2009 to ensure that all children including out of school children are enrolled. To improve learning outcomes, it is necessary to change the orientation of teaching-learning process. For this purpose, a State level school for Teachers' education is coming up at Silani Kesho. For improving the quality of higher education, extensive steps have been taken. Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonipat, is a unique initiative in the field of higher education with a clear focus on quality in professional courses.
Government has also setup eight new Government colleges in 2012-13, which is a record.
