MUMBAI, DEC 2: Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today claimed that his government will complete the target of collecting Rs 10,000 crore under the small savings scheme.

``Out of the Rs 10,000 crore, the Centre has agreed to divert Rs 7,500 crore for undertaking drinking water supply schemes in the State,'' Joshi told media persons after the weekly cabinet meeting. On the occasion of his 60th birthday today, the cabinet passed a one-line resolution congratulating Joshi.

He said the State Government has set a target of collecting Rs 5,510 crore in small savings between November 1997 to March 1998 as part of its golden small savings scheme, he said. The scheme, aimed at collecting a total of Rs 10,000 crore in an year - the largest target ever set in any state in the country - was launched on August 9, 1997, on the occasion of Quit India anniversary, by the Prime Minister. Rs 1,500 crore had already been mopped up by October 1997 under the scheme. The balance Rs 3,000 crore would be invested into small savings scheme between April and August 1998 to reach the final target, headded. Under the small savings scheme, sponsored by the Central Government, 75 per cent of the amount collected from a state is returned to it for developmental work in the form of loan.

If Maharashtra achieved its final target, it would receive Rs 7,500 crore back from the Centre as loan to be used to complete the Shiv Sena-BJP government's ambitious programme of providing drinking water to all villages in the State, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.