Pulok okays UP funds demands

“Over 50 per cent of the demands have been acceded to. The Centre also assured that many of the demands cannot be met from the ongoing schemes and will be accommodated during the 12th Plan period,” said a state government official present in the meeting.

The financial demands in Akhilesh’s letters amounted to over Rs 90,000 crore. But the officials said the monetary aspects were misleading as this was not a special package being accepted by the Centre. They said that most of the demands were related to release of UP government’s due share of funds that were caught in “technical difficulties” related to norms or state government commitments.

Among some of the major demands accepted was reducing the population criterion for providing rural roads under the PMGSY scheme in the Bundelkhand region,declaring two major irrigation projects as national projects with 90 per cent Central funding and releasing over Rs 900 crore to the cooperative sector as per the recommendations of a central committee.

During the meeting,Chatterjee was learnt to have prodded the departments to favourably examine the UP government’s demands.

The Centre also assured the UP government to accommodate some of their demands during the 12th Plan period.

Some of these include relaxed scholarships criteria and funds for nine new state-level universities.