UP gets Rs 19,000 cr for next fiscal

The Planning Commission today approved an annual outlay of Rs 19,000 crore for Uttar Pradesh for 2006-07. The plan size has gone up by 41 per cent from Rs 13,500 crore last year.

"The Planning Commission has given UP Rs 19,000 crore for 2006-07. I got what I had asked for. I am fully satisfied with the decision," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters here.

The decision came following Yadav's meeting with Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia here today, in which top officials of the UP government, besides the chief minister, were present. Yadav had asked for Rs 20,000 crore for the state.

Yadav said during the discussion, he had suggested that while deciding the annual plan for the next fiscal, the Planning Commission should take into consideration the 10 per cent increase of the state share in the central taxes.

He told the Commission the state government, during 2005-06, had been able to mobilise Rs 13,500 crore and that there was a considerable increase of 23.1 per cent in the collection of revenue, which was more than Rs 2,126 crore.

Yadav also expressed concern at the continued decline in central assistance, which had dwindled from 59 per cent in Tenth Plan to merely 18 per cent in 2005-06.

He had asked the Commission to keep in mind the state's increasing population and its economic backwardness while deciding the next annual plan.

The chief minister told the Commission about the steps taken by the state government to improve the economic situation of farmers, particularly the sugarcane growers resulting in an additional Rs 400 crore income to them.

He said to encourage the sugar industry, for the first time in 2005-06, a new "sugar promotion policy" was announced, under which 16 new sugar mills were to be established. Nine sugar mills have already been set up during the current fiscal while the remaining seven will be set up in the next year, he said.

The chief minister also told the Commission about power generation in the state and the need for bringing power to 30,000 villages and sought an additional Rs 908 crore in this regard.

Yadav wanted the central contribution to go up from 15 per cent to 50 per cent for metro services between Delhi and Ghaziabad and further up to Noida.