Intending to give fillip to the efforts made by the state government, the planning commission on Tuesday agreed to give a substantial 20 percent hike to Bihar’s annual plan outlay to `24,000 crore for 2011-12.
But the plan panel has asked the Bihar government to speed up power sector reform in the state during the current financial year itself.
Speaking to reporters after the two-hour long meeting with chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chairman of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, “Bihar is doing well. Growth rate has picked up. There is good growth in agriculture ... We wish to promote its growth process.”
Assuring that the Centre will continue its support to the development work being done by the state government, Mr Ahluwalia said, “This is the last year of the 11th Plan and we have agreed on a plan size of `24,000 crore, which emphasises many different sectors.”
Last year, the Planning Commission had approved the outlay of `20,000 crore.
Bihar needs to focus on the power sector, Mr Ahluwalia said, adding that the financial performance of the sector needs to be strengthened.
Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani also attended the meeting. Sources said, Mr Nilekani suggested that in three years time the entire social sector schemes would be covered under UID.
Noting that Bihar has e-shakti programme to enlist biometric details of NREGA beneficiaries, Mr Nilekani said, UID could be expanded for all the social sector programmes.
Meanwhile, agreeing to the suggestions made By Mr Ahluwalia, the Bihar chief minister informed that the state government is working to enhance power generation capacity in both conventional and non-conventional energy sources.
Mr Kumar, however, ridiculed the centre’s rural electrification programme, sources said, adding that the chief minister complained about tullu transformers given under the scheme, which burns and then people don’t allow their replacement.