Shimla: Himachal Pradesh State Planning Board has approved an Annual Plan of Rs. 5700 crore for the financial year 2017-18 at a meeting held here yesterday. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Though, the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, has discontinued the process of formulation of five year and annual plans, the State Government has decided to continue with the process of Annual Plan for 2017-18, said the Chief Minster.
The Annual Plan approved is 9.61 percent higher as compared to last year’s Annual Plan of Rs. 5200 crore. The plan approved has added priority to social service sector, transport, agriculture and hydro-power.
An outlay of Rs. 2213 crore has been proposed for social service sector, followed by transport and communication with a proposed outlay of Rs. 1073 crore. The third priority has been accorded to agriculture and allied services sector for which an outlay of Rs. 714 crore has been proposed.
The hydel power, which remains an important component of the development agenda was added as fourth priority by proposing an outlay of Rs. 683 crore.
Besides, a sum of Rs. 1436 crore has been proposed under Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan, Rs. 513 crore for Tribal sub-Plan and Rs. 70 crore for Backward Area sub- Plan.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government was also in the process of preparing the vision document-2030, containing seven years development strategy and three years action plan. However, to be a part of the initiatives at the global level, the State Government in its budget for 2016-17, not only decided to achieve most of these targets set under the sustainable development goals but surpass them by 2022, which was much before the timeline of agenda 2030, as adopted by United Nations for sustainable development.
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