Bihar proposes increase in plan outlay
By IANSMonday, February 7, 2011
PATNA - The Bihar government has decided to raise the state’s plan size by about 20 percent, much above what the Planning Commission had proposed.
It has sent to the Planning Commission a plan outlay proposal of Rs.24,000 crore even though it had last year used only Rs.11,000 crore of the allocated Rs.20,000 crore.
The state government has sent a proposal of plan outlay of Rs.24,000 crore for the next fiscal year to the Planning Commission, an official said Monday.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will meet Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia Feb 15 in this connection.
“Nitish Kumar will meet Montek Singh Ahluwalia to convince him about the government’s proposal to raise the plan size,” an official in the chief minister’s office said.
According to official sources in the state finance department, the Planning Commission has asked the state government to prepare a plan outlay of Rs.18,800 crore for 2011-2012. The state government, however, rejected it and sent a proposal of Rs.24,000 crore.
The Planning Commission, in a note last month, had pointed out that Bihar had till December 2010 spent only Rs.11,000 crore, 55 percent less than the Rs.20,000 crore allocated for the financial year 2010-11.
Last year the Planning Commission approved Bihar’s plan size of Rs.20,000 crore for the 2010-11 fiscal — 39 percent more than the annual plan outlay of Rs.14,404.65 crore for 2009-10.
