SHIMLA: The HP Planning Board on Wednesday approved the annual plan size of Rs 7,100 crore for the year 2019-20, a hike of 12.7% than the last year’s annual plan, during a meeting chaired by chief minister Jai Ram Thakur in Shimla on Wednesday.The last year’s annual plan was Rs 6,300 crore.The sectors that have been given added priority in the annual plan are social services sector, transport and communication, agriculture and allied activities, energy and irrigation and flood control.Thakur said an outlay of Rs 3,048.15 crore has been proposed for social services sector which is 42.93% of the total outlay. The funds allocated for education and health sector would help improve the human development indicators and make the growth process in the state more inclusive.He said transport and communication sectors are being given the second priority with a proposed outlay of Rs 1,241.98 crore, which is 14.49% of the total outlay. He said this has been done to link feasible villages with motorable roads and maintenance of the existing infrastructure.He said third priority has been accorded to agriculture and allied activities sector with an outlay of Rs 877.25 crore. This has been done keeping in view the fact that this sector provides direct employment to about 62% of the total working population in the state.He said Rs 711.06 crore has been proposed for energy sector, Rs 457.48 crore for irrigation and flood control and Rs 335.15 crore for general economic services while Rs 133.89 crore has been proposed for other general services sector.He said Rs 133.65 crore has been proposed for rural development, Rs 95.59 crore for industries and minerals, Rs 38.02 crore for science technology and environment and Rs 27.78 crore for special area programme.He said out of annual plan size of Rs 7,100 crore, an outlay of Rs 1788.49 crore has been provided for Scheduled Castes sub-plan for the implementation of schemes largely benefiting SC population. Similarly, 9% funds amounting to Rs 639 crore have been provided under the Tribal Area Sub Plan which is aimed at development of the tribal areas of the state.He said Rs 80 crore has been allocated for backward area sub plan for development of the backward areas of the state.Thakur said external aided projects worth Rs 1217.82 crore have been proposed to be implemented in the sector of agriculture, horticulture, forests, minor irrigation, power, roads, tourism, technical education, rural water supply and urban development with the assistance of World Bank, Asian Development Bank, KFW and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).He said Rs 735 crore has been proposed under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) loan funding from Nabard. Under this, Rs 427 crore has been proposed for roads and bridges, Rs 143 crore for rural water supply schemes, Rs 125 crore for minor irrigation schemes, Rs 40 crore for soil conservation and flood control.

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