Manohar Lal Khattar demands special economic package for Haryana

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday demanded that the Centre give a special economic package to Haryana as 14 districts of the state fall in the National Capital Region and lot of resources have to be spent on construction and maintenance of infrastructure in these areas. During a pre-budget meeting of state finance ministers with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, Khattar said that Haryana's area of 25,327 square kilometres and population of 164.3 lakh comes under NCR.

The region consumes a lot of resources for infrastructure, water, sanitation, urban development and connectivity, he said.

"Therefore, the State should be given a special economic package keeping in mind that a lot of resources have to be spent on the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in these areas," Khattar was quoted in a state government statement.

Khattar also holds the finance portfolio.

He said that in NCR, Haryana Government is spending money on the development of the KMP Expressway, the Rail Orbital Project, the Development of five cities of 2.5 lakh hectares along the KMP Corridor, an Integrated Multi Modal Logistics Hub at Narnaul, an International Horticulture Market at Ganaur and other big projects.

The demand made by the Haryana Government for a special package from the Central Government for the implementation of these projects is justified, added Khattar, as per the statement.

Khattar thanked the Central Government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nirmala Sitharaman for continuously giving special assistance for the Capital Investment Scheme to the States in the form of a 50-year interest-free loan in 2022-23 also.

The Chief Minister said that Haryana has received Rs 874 crore under this scheme in 2022-23 for the implementation of the Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project. He requested the Central Government to continue this scheme in future also.

Khattar said that the state has done tremendous work to strengthen the health infrastructure of the state along with doing commendable progress in medical education.

Medical colleges have either been opened in every district of Haryana or the process of opening the same has started, he said.

The number of undergraduate seats in medical colleges in Haryana was 700 in 2015, he said, while adding "we aim to increase this up to 3035 by 2025".

He said that the construction and operation of medical colleges require to get capital intensive, with a capital investment of over Rs 700 crore on each such project, hence a demand has been made to the Central Government to provide special financial assistance to open these medical colleges in Haryana.