Himachal Pradesh is starving of funds under the centrally sponsored schemes by the Centre Government. The schemes are running short of requisite budget pushing the state to meet the additional demand from its meagre resources.
The state government figures shows that it has only received Rs 790 Cr. in the last 7 months under the flagship programmes funded from centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), which is only about 45 per cent of the total provision of Rs 1,795 Cr. for the current fiscal year, leaving a big gap for achieving the proposed target.
Rs 257 Cr. were received under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) while around Rs 400 Cr. is earmarked for current fiscal.
The state received Rs13.84 Cr. under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Rs 85 Cr. under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA).
Chief Secretary, Mr. P Mitra while presiding over a review meeting held recently on budget assurances and state plan outlay and implementation status of the externally aided projects, said that various centrally sponsored schemes are lacking requisite budget.
Mr. P Mitra asked the departments to expedite proceedings for the reimbursement in time. He asked the health and medical education department to expedite in getting forest clearance for establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bilaspur district.
He said that Union government had approved Rs 4.41 Cr. for strengthening of the burned unit in Tanda medical college of which an amount of Rs2.77 Cr. has been received.