Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA to use her good office to get Himachal Pradesh additional financial assistance of Rs. 5214 crore to bridge the gap left by the 13th Finance Commission as also get the State details of the so called unutilized funds amounting to Rs. 10,000 crore, as had been propagated by her and other senior Congress leaders during electioneering in the State. Such a request has been made to Sonia Gandhi in a letter written to her by the Chief Minister today.
Chief Minister said that the State had been making all out efforts to generate additional funds from various resources at its command irrespective of the extra-ordinary financial crunch imposed upon the State due to the un-favorable recommendations made by the 13th Finance Commission. He said that repeated requests had been made to the Government of India to provide State additional assistance of Rs. 5,214 crore to meet the emergent financial committed liabilities but the Centre has turned its cold shoulder towards the genuine and justified demand of the State. He requested Sonia Gandhi to use her good office to deliver justice to the State by making recommendation to the Union Finance Ministry to release the demanded financial assistance to the State on priority.
Prof. Dhumal also requested Gandhi to get the State details of the so called un-utilized Central funds amounting to Rs. 10,000-cr as she had stated in her speeches during electioneering in the State followed by other senior Congress leadership. He said that it would be in the interest of the people of the State if the details of the said amount were revealed by sharing the information so that the matter could be pursued at appropriate level and funds utilized over achieving the specific projects. He said that the State had received Rs. 9,597.25 crore under State Plan from the year 2008-09 to 2011-12 from the Centre while the State Plan size was approved at Rs. 11,400 crore for the period. He said that compared to the State Plan size of Rs. 11,400 crore the actual expenditure done by the State was Rs. 11,507.17 crore which was 100.9 percent of the approved Plan size. He said that State had implemented each and every programme of the Government of India holistically and utilized the funds fully under specific programme, which had won the State top position in 20-Point Programme Implementation of the Government of India and also recently awarded Best Performing State of the Decade by India Today Group. He urged Gandhi to support the genuine demand of the State by getting the funds released and sending the details of Rs. 10,000 crore as alleged by her.
