This was stated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who today began a marathon exercise of fixing priorities for the next annual plan with the newly-elected MLAs.The exercise will be over tomorrow evening, covering all 68 Assembly constituencies in the state’s 12 districts.

Today’s discussions were completed with MLAs from six districts — Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Mandi, Chamba and Bilaspur. The BJP had swept all five seats in Solan district and won six seats out of 10 in Mandi.

The final meeting for finalisation of the annual plan is slated to be held between the Chief Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia on January 21. The government proposes an increase of 14.3 per cent in the annual plan.

In the meeting, Dhumal declared that every Assembly segment would get Rs 3 crore annually under the NABARD funding. The total amount being received from NABARD is around Rs 200 crore.

He assured the MLAs to continue the old practice of including three ongoing and three new schemes each in roads, minor irrigation and water supply sectors as prioritised by the MLAs. The priorities given by MLAs would be adopted for financing through NABARD-aided Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and other projects.

The policy of the government would mainly be targeted at increasing the income of farmers and generating employment opportunities for the unemployed youth. But to bring about a long-term improvement, the government would make efforts to accelerate hydro power development and build vital infrastructure of irrigation, roads and bridges and drinking water supply. Efforts would also be made to nurture the human capital by skill development of the educated unemployed. Also, environment protection will not be overlooked.

Dhumal directed the industries department to check unscientific mining in different rivers of the state, which was hampering the smooth supply of drinking water and irrigation facilities. He said all such anti-environment activities required to be checked immediately.

He emphasised the need for close coordination among all the departments, which had been laying pipes and wires on the state roads. All such activities need to be carried out at one time so that the roads are not dug up time and again, he said.