Seeking a nearly one-third increase in the 2013-14 Plan outlay, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa lashed at the Centre for not keeping the promises it made in terms of support to the State Plan last fiscal.
This in spite of the State’s own efforts to mobilise resources to finance its Plan, she said at a meeting with Union Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Monday.
A pointer to this was the 20 per cent cut in the Plan expenditure in the revised estimates for 2012-13 in the Union budget. In 2012-13, Centre budgeted a release of Rs.3,473.48 crore as plan assistance to Tamil Nadu, but only Rs. 2,762.14 crore was released. “In spite of this, I am confident Tamil Nadu will over-achieve the annual plan outlay of Rs.28,000 crore by filling the gap with the State’s own resources,” the Chief Minister said.
The annual plan of Rs.37,000 crore proposed by the State government for 2013-14 was backed by adequate resources, she said, adding 49.3 per cent of the Plan expenditure would be on social services like health and education. Noting that the outlay for infrastructure sectors like transport and energy was increased substantially, she said 91 per cent of the Plan would be financed through the State's own resources supported by budgetary borrowing. “We expect that nine per cent of the Plan outlay will be met through Central Assistance… hopeful that last year’s disappointment will not spill over into this year,” she said.
On the schemes, the Chief Minister said her government was keen to implement permanent solutions for the State's water woes.
Urging the Centre to allocate maximum financial assistance for the Rs. 2,500 crore 400 mld treatment capacity desalination plant at Pattipulam, south of Chennai, Ms. Jayalalithaa said five more plants of 20 mld each were also proposed along the coast line of the State. Their approximate cost was Rs.700 crore and “I request the Union Planning Commission to extend Additional Central Assistance of Rs.210 crore.
With regard to power, she said ongoing projects had been fast tracked to ensure that new hydro and thermal generation projects commissioned within this year would add a generation capacity of 3230 MW.
Procurement action had commenced for the newly announced 660 MW Ennore expansion project and for the 2x660 MW super critical units each at Udangudi and Ennore with a total capacity of 2640 MW.
To evacuate power from wind mills, a 400 kilovolt transmission corridor across the State was being strengthened at a cost of Rs.4,000 crore.
