Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said that special emphasis would be given for construction of roads in backward areas of the State to ensure development in such areas.
Presiding over the State Planning Board meeting to approve draft annual plan for the year 2014-15, Singh said that Rs 4,400 crore annual plan has been proposed for the year 2014-15 which was 7.32 per cent more than 2013-14. He said that Rs 1,108 crore had been proposed for Scheduled Caste Sub Plan while Rs 395 crore would be spent under Scheduled Tribe Sub Plan.
The CM said that social service sector had always remained priority of the Government and Rs 1,085 crore had been proposed for this sector which was 38 per cent of the total plan. Transport and Communication sectors have also been accorded priority and Rs 817 crore had been proposed for the same which was 19 per cent of the total plan.
Singh said power generation was one of the main priority sectors of the Government and provision of Rs 648 crore had been made for this sector which was 15 per cent of the Plan. Rs 545 crore, which is 12 per cent of the total plan would be made available for Horticulture and Agriculture sectors which were the backbone of our economy.
He said the growth rate of the State was better than National average and Per Capita Income of the State was Rs 8,2611 as compared to National Per Capita Income of Rs 68,947 at current prices. The State had also performed better than National indicators in literacy and Health sectors. He said that our literacy rate was 82.80 as compared to 73 of national level and the life expectancy in the State was 70 years as compared to 66.1 years of the National average.
Virbhadra Singh said the ratio of Government employees of Himachal Pradesh was 3.95 of its population as compared to 1.54 of Uttarakhand, 1.30 of Jammu & Kashmir, 1.56 of Punjab and 1.29 of Haryana.
Cabinet Ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, vice-chancellors of Universities and top officials were present in
the meeting.