There has been a hefty increase in both the Annual Plan outlay and the 11th Five Year Plan of Haryana, finalised by the Union Planning Commission this year. An outlay of Rs 35,000 crore has been finalised for Haryana which is 192% more than that allocated for the last Five Year Plan. According to the sources, the Centre would convene a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) on December 19 to approve the 11th Five Year Plan.
The Annual and Five Year Plan allocations were finalised between the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in a meeting recently. “While the annual Central assistance for the state has been raised from Rs 3,300 crore to Rs 5,300 crore, Haryana would get around Rs 35,000 crore for the period of 2007-12”, sources confirmed.
Data collected from the planning department reveals that while the overall increase in the annual plan outlay this year is 61% higher than that of last year, the state’s allocation for the year 2005-06 is just around Rs 2,000 crore. Thus the plan outlay is almost three times more than what it was about two years back, a record in itself. The annual outlay includes one-time additional Central assistance of Rs 80 crore for the priority projects of the state. Social and infrastructure sectors are the major focus area of the plan for the year 2007-08 with around 46% of the total plan expenditure.
The state government would spend a whopping Rs 350 crore on rural infrastructure through the marketing board and the rural development funds in the 12-month period, while over Rs 2,800 crore are being spent to improve the power supply system in the state. Sources claimed that the Commission lauded the state government’s performance in the fiscal sector, which includes revenue growth and expenditure realization. The development in the past two years is described as an example to be followed by others. Haryana is targeting a growth rate of 15% this year, which is much more than national growth target and those set by neighbouring Punjab.