12.7.12

Centre pampers UP

UP walked away with a bag full of goodies from the Centre. In a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with PM Manmohan Singh and senior bureaucrats in New Delhi, UP chief secretary Jawed Usmani along with the state’s senior bureaucrats managed to extract promises of funds for nearly all pending projects proposed by the state government.
The Centre’s largesse poured in for different sectors, with coal, energy, rural development, education and health among the major beneficiaries. The PMO said it would consider the state government’s request for coal block allotment through the government dispensation route. In a major victory for the state, the Centre also said domestic coal linkage would be given to all manufacturing units coming up in UP before 2014. 
And though the magical Rs 90,000 crore “special package” remained elusive, the UPA government bent backwards to please, even assuring the UP government that, all proposals pending with the Centre would be considered and cleared, provided they were covered under the Central government schemes. 
In a major coup for the state’s energy sector, officials of BHEL, also present at the Centre-state meeting, promised to address the state’s grievances in running the power units at Parichha, Obra and Harduaganj.
Among other schemes, the PMO approved the release of Rs 922 crore balance amount to UP’s department of cooperatives under the Vaidyanathan package. In other rural development schemes for UP, the Centre promised to meet all demands for additional stocks of fertilizers. Even dark blocks, for which UP demanded an allocation of Rs 1,500 crore, were not summarily turned down. Officials said a scheme will be formulated and assistance provided to the state.
Central assistance was also promised for combating Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and Japanese Encephalitis. In another achievement for the state, the PM said all villages of UP will be given piped water supply in 10 years. Approving an allocation of Rs 7,000 crore to fulfill this promise by 2022, UP will receive about Rs 700 crore annually, for saturating its villages with piped water supply.
In response to the state’s demand for nine more Central universities in UP, the government agreed to make necessary provisions in the 12th Plan, while in the health sector, the Centre agreed to start work on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rae Bareli, for which UP has identified 150 acres.
The state’s home department will also get the Centre’s bounty. Following demands for roads on the UP-Nepal border, the Centre asked the state government to send estimates for approval. 

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