HP Annual Plan for fixed at 3,700-cr

Dhumal said the general plan,scheduled caste sub-plan,tribal area sub-plan and backward area sub-plan have been finalised at Rs 2,427.36 crore,Rs 914.64 crore,Rs 333 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively.

The Chief Minister said social services have been given highest priority with allocation of Rs 1,189.56 crore 32.15 per cent. It is followed by transport and communications,energy,agriculture and allied sectors with allocations of Rs 778.76 crore 21.05 pc,Rs 581.92 crore 15.73 pc and Rs 480 crore 12.98 pc respectively.

Dhumal said the plan allocation for agriculture is 12.98 per cent,which is almost double the national average of 5-6 per cent and demanded that the state be exempted from formula based allocation and provided Rs 130 crore under RKVY for the year 2012-13.

He stated that state has achieved the annual growth rate of 8.1 per cent during the 11th Five Year Plan 2007-2012 which is higher than the National growth rate of 7.9 per cent.

He said the state8217;s estimated growth rate for 2011-12 is 7.6 per cent,against the national growth rate of 6.9 per cent during the year.

He said that for the last two years,state8217;s performance in all the items of 20-Point Programmes has been categorised as 8220;very good8221; by the Government of India and claimed that the state8217;s indicators in education and health sectors are amongst the best in the country.

Dhumal said the state has completed 33 lakh enrolments under Aadhaar and the complete enrolment will be done by July,2012.

He said that to help provide responsive and accountable administration,12 departments have been notified under the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Guarantee Bill 2011 to provide time-bound services to people.

He said that of the total power potential of over 23,000 MW in the state,7913 MW 34.40 per cent has been harnessed till now. While 473.4 MW is in the state sector,5,644 MW are in the Central/Joint Sector and 1,796.4 MW in the private sector,leaving the balance potential to be expeditiously harnessed to optimise returns to the state.

He said that so far state has completed allocation of over 95 per cent of total hydel potential to various agencies and added that out of the total potential,9,088 MW 39.5 per cent will be generated by the Central sector PSUs including SJVNL; about 10,000 MW 43.5 per cent will be generated by private sector and 3,800 MW 17 pc will be generated in the state sector.

Dhumal said that the apple crop accounts for over 80 per cent of the total fruit production in the state and various steps have been taken to improve its productivity. A Controlled Atmospheric CA storage capacity of 18,000 tonnes has so far been created in the state by the private agencies for post-harvesting facility.

He asked for relaxation of cost norms and time period under AIBP for hilly states and demanded that the per hectare cost norms for hilly states should be increased from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh and the completion period of the scheme should be increased from two years to three years.

He said the state8217;s pending payment of Rs 62.42 crore of Shahnehar with Punjab government has not been released so far and requested for release of payment through the AIBP allocations during 2012-13 so that a long standing issue can be settled once for all.

He said that the Railway Ministry has reduced the budget allocation of Nangal Dam-Talwara Railway line rail line to Rs 10 crore for 2012-13 from Rs 23 crore in the current financial year.

He told that the Ministry of Railways has only constructed 44 Km of this rail line so far while the work on 39 Km of this rail line is pending and this railway line is not likely to be completed on scheduled time limit of December,2013,fixed by the railways.