Wish list

Ranchi, Oct. 18: The state will ask for more sops from the Centre during Planning Commission secretary Sudha Pillai’s visit to improve its irrigation, road and rural development schemes.

Pillai is scheduled to reach Ranchi tomorrow. She will chair a meeting at a city hotel in the afternoon where she will present a detailed picture of Jharkhand’s development in the presence of the state cabinet and senior bureaucrats, who head different government departments.

“The Planning Commission secretary will tell us where does Jharkhand stand on the development map in comparison to other developed states. The state administration has decided to demand many sops from her,” said D.K. Tiwary, principal secretary to the chief minister.

Some of the demands are inclusion of irrigation projects like Subernarekha Multipurpose Project in the list of Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme under which the Centre bears majority of the construction cost.

The Subernarekha Multipurpose Project, started way back in 1970’s, is still far from complete despite the state spending about Rs 2,000 crore. The total project cost has now crossed over Rs 6,000 crore. The project, once complete, will irrigate over 2,75,000 hectares in Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal besides checking flash floods in Jamshedpur and other parts of the state.

Other major demands are inclusion of more roads under National Highway category so that the state can spend less on upkeep of the stretches. “Matters like the state losing a cumulative fund of about Rs 1,350 crore, which was not given to Jharkhand under backward region grant, 12th Finance Commission (meant for panchayati raj bodies and urban local self bodies) and 13th Finance Commission (panchayat/local self bodies) will also be discussed,”a source said.

Chief minister Arjun Munda and chief secretary A.K. Singh today held rounds of meeting till late evening at Project Building, finalising nitty-gritty before Pillai’s arrival. Pillai will be accompanied by principal adviser S.P. Seth and adviser Sat Pal Chauhan.

Munda will host a dinner at his residence tomorrow evening for the Planning Commission officials, his cabinet colleagues and the top bureaucrats.