Patna, Jan. 17: Planning Commission today asked the Bihar government to submit a formal proposal in support of its demand for increasing the special annual grants given to the state under Sam Vikas Yojana.

Member secretary of the commission Sudha Pillai sought the proposal from the state in a meeting convened in Delhi to discuss the work done so far in the current fiscal by the central agencies responsible for implementing the schemes under Sam Vikas Yojana.

Senior state officials, including chief secretary Navin Kumar, planning and development department principal secretary Vijoy Prakash, energy department principal secretary Ajay V. Nayak and road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit, took part in the meeting.

Since the commencement of the special grant system, Bihar had been getting Rs 1,000 crore every year. The grant amount stood at Rs 2,000 crore in 2010-11 because of increased expenditure in projects under Sam Vikas Yojana. The state wants it to be increased to Rs 4,000 crore.

“Apart from reviewing the progress made in various projects being implemented by the central agencies in Bihar, we also raised the state’s demand of increasing the annual allocation to Rs 4,000 crore during the Twelfth Plan Period (2012-17) keeping the future infrastructure needs of the state in mind. The member secretary asked us to submit a formal proposal in support of this demand,” one of the senior officials of Bihar, who took part in the meeting, told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi.

He said the state wanted an increased flow of funds under the special annual grant for the road, energy, irrigation, panchayati raj, irrigation and forests and environment sectors.

This is not for the first time that the state has pleaded for increased flow of funds to strengthen its infrastructure. The same demand was made during the meeting of National Development Council in October last year.

The system of granting special funds to Bihar was put in place after the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, when Jharkhand was carved out of it, for filling the infrastructure gap because of the division of the state.

The fund under this head is given to the state after Planning Commission makes recommendation to the Union finance ministry, which releases the fund to the state.

Initially, Bihar had been getting Rs 1,000 crore every year. The grant amount stood at Rs 2,000 crore in 2010-11 because of increased expenditure in projects under Sam Vikas Yojana.

The Centre had agreed to give Rs 2,465 crore for the current fiscal. During the review meeting it came to light that the central agencies, except railways, working in the state would be able to spend Rs 1,485 crore in the current fiscal on the projects being implemented by them.

“Once railway submits its expenditure report, the actual picture of fund consumption in the projects being implemented by the central agencies would become clear,” said the official.

Apart from railways, Ircon International Limited, Central Public Works Department and Bharat Heavy Engineering Limited are executing the infrastructure projects in the state.