Haryana annual budget to be Rs 6300 crore next FY: FM

Yamunanagar, Jan 15 (UNI) Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh today informed that the annual plan budget of the State for the next financial year would be to the tune of Rs 6300 crore whereas it was of merely Rs 2000 crore when the present government assumed office in 2005.

The Finance Minister, who was interacting with mediapersons after presiding over the convocation of Hindu Girls College in Yamunanagar today, said the plan budget for the current year was of Rs 5300 crore.

This, he said, reflected the accelerated pace of development. On the other hand, the previous government could not spend the annual plan budget of Rs 2000 crore, he added.

In reply to a question, Mr Birender Singh said the decision to suspend former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and two of his associates Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj from the Congress party yesterday had been taken at an appropriate time as they had crossed all the limits.

While referring to the issue of power, he regretted that the several previous state governments did not pay any heed to add to the generation capacity of power which resulted in shortage.

With a view to abridge the gap between power, demand and supply, the State Government has been purchasing about 1000 MW of power from other sources Mr Birender Singh said, adding that four big power generation plants were being set up speedily.

As the demand for power was increasing by 12 to 14 per cent per year, the problem of its shortage could be resolved only by increasing its generation capacity, he said.

He said 5500 MW of power would be added to the generation capacity in next few year and out of it 3600 MW of power would be generated within the state in next two years.

Mr Birender Singh said an agreement has been signed with Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to get power from big power plants being set up in these states. There was also a plan to set up a 400 MW power generation plant at Kishau Dam and in case this project materialised, half of its power would be supplied to Haryana.

He said much power could not be procured from other states as the northern grids capacity was of 1500 to 2000 MW. The Administrative Reforms Commission has been set up to improve the efficiency of administration and it would give its report soon, he added.

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