He said, the centre would give Rs 300 crore for the purpose in the current year and an additional Rs 85 crore would come from the Mandi committees.The chief minister said the Centre government had given a "very positive" response to the issues of power sector reform and hinted that the government might have to take "harsh" measures to implement reforms.

As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Union government, 75 per cent of the cost of power production would have to be compulsorily recovered from consumers in the next five years, he said. The state government would have to provide budget allocation for any subsidy given to the consumers, the chief minister added.

The chief minister pleaded for increase in rates of royalty for coal.

He said whereas National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had revised the tariff many times, coal royalty had remained stagnant since 1993.

Singh also informed that Gwalior, Sehore, Raisen, Hoshangabad and Narsinghpur had been included in the special drinking water scheme under which 90 per cent expenses would be incurred by the centre and 10 per cent would be collected through people's participation.

He said a provision of Rs 10 crore had been made for desilting and cleaning of water.