15th finance panel lauds Haryana’s fiscal mgmt

ACCOLADES Stresses need to strengthen water mgmt, create more jobs opportunities, assures to consider periurban farming

CHANDIGARH:THE officiating chairman of the 15th finance commission Ashok Lahiri on Friday lauded Haryana’s fiscal management and ‘Saksham Yuva Scheme’ and also on becoming first kerosene-free state in the country.

Addressing mediapersons after holding several meetings with Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, finance minister Capt Abhimanyu and senior officers of the state government on Friday, Lahiri said Haryana was the first state in the country to prepare vision document of sustainable goals with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

He said that Gurugram had the highest per capita income in the country, whereas the per capita income in Nuh district was very low, hence a need to develop Nuh.

He said that during the last three years, there had been improvement in the sex ratio in Haryana and now there are 914 girls per thousand boys. Stating that Haryana had made exemplary progress in the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), he, however, said the availability of water in the state was much less than its demand. Some of the areas had been declared dark zones, hence, a need of strengthen the water management system.

He said that there was also a need to create job opportunities and the commission would consider peri-urban farming as suggested by Haryana agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister OP Dhankar.

KHATTAR HOPEFUL OF MAXIMUM FUNDS

Briefing newspersons, Khattar said the state government had submitted suggestions to 15th finance commission on the basis of the suggestions received from the people of the state and hoped that the state would get maximum funds from the commission.

After his meeting with the 15th finance commission here, Khattar said the farmers’ income would be doubled by the year 2022 as per the announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state government had submitted suggestions to the finance commission in this regard.

MULLING OVER SOLARBASED TUBEWELL

Capt Abhimanyu told the media that the state government was contemplating upon implementing a solar-based tubewell scheme which aims to benefit farmers as they would be able to generate electricity and earn income.

After the meeting, Abhimanyu said that under this scheme, six lakh tubewells in the state would be linked with solar energy. The power subsidy of ₹7,000 crore to be given under this scheme would also be borne by the state government. This scheme would be finalised soon, he added.

INLD MEMORANDUM

Meanwhile, a delegation of opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) submitted a memorandum to the commission requesting to recommend to the government of India to grant assistance of about ₹1.42 lakh crore to liberate the farmers and the state from the debt trap.

The INLD delegation led by general secretary RS Choudhary, in its memorandum, also raised the issue of stubble management since its burning had become a serious threat to the environment and health.

The memorandum termed the present crop insurance scheme as a failure and asked the commission to recommend establishment of farmers’ welfare fund.