Himachal Pradesh proposes annual budget of Rs 5,700 crore

Shimla, Jan 31 (TNN): Himachal Pradesh government has proposed an annual plan of Rs 5,700 crore for 2017-18, which is Rs 500 crore more than the previous plan. Chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said there is increase of 9.61%, which is more than the state’s growth rate of 7.7%.

While presiding over a meeting of MLAs of Solan, Shimla and Sirmaur districts in Shimla for the finalization of priorities for 2017-18 budget, Virbhadra said Rs 470 crore worth detailed project reports were sanctioned through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for meeting out the priorities of MLAs. He said total project reports of around Rs 1,100 crore were forwarded to Nabard for sanction.

He said it was necessary to conduct the social audit of new schemes or those being implemented as it was important to know the reasons of delay in implementation, if any. “It’s easy to correct oneself at the very beginning rather than wasting time in mending the mistakes afterwards,” he said.

Virbhadra stressed on social audit of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) Yojna being implemented in Shimla and Kullu, skill development schemes for Mukhyamantri Startup Yojna and other schemes in a time-bound manner.

He said the forest officials should have a proactive approach and should push for clearance as it is their responsibility to pave way for development. He said that Dharampur-Kasauli road needs to be widened and asked for preparation of project report. He asked to purchase water pipes of different dimensions for routing water to households anticipating the availability of connections.