Patna, July 21: The state planning and development department has expedited the preparation of its state-level approach paper for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17). Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary of the department, today revealed it at a news meet at Soochna Bhavan.

Prakash said the department was working on synchronisation of 20 core statistics categories, identified by the Union government, into a central cadre for the entire state under the State Statistical Strengthening Programme.

“The department has been expeditiously discharging all its duties which can be gauged from the fact that against the final outlay of Rs 18,351.57 crore approved by the planning commission for the year 2010-11, a total of Rs 18,717.57 crore was utilised by the year–end, which is 101.99 per cent of the approved amount. Moreover, the department is also working on the development of urban and rural regions in all the districts under the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana,” said Prakash.