Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday sought the Centre’s intervention in resolving the long-pending issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) and Hansi-Butana Link canals so that the state could get its “legitimate share of river water”.
“To overcome the water shortage in the state, the government will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Kishau dam. Besides, MoUs have already been signed with the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh Governments for Lakhwar and Renuka dams,” said Khattar.
He made the comments while speaking during the sixth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog held under the chairmanship of PM Narendra Modi through video conferencing held on Saturday.
Highlighting the fact that though Haryana is at the forefront in GST collection, the CM said that despite that, the state gets only 20 per cent GST due to Input Tax Credit. He urged PM Modi to formulate a plan for incentivising the states having the maximum GST collection.
He apprised PM Modi that for reducing compliance burden at the state level and for ‘Ease of Doing Business’, Haryana Enterprise and Employment Policy 2020 has been launched.
For thrust on the creation of jobs, the CM said that the state has recently passed Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill and that digitalisation of workforce database has been done. He said that in the past five years as many as five lakh youth have been given employment opportunities.
The CM also talked about ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat’ scheme which has helped in replacing paddy from 97,000 acres with alternative crops like maize, cotton, bajra, pulses, vegetables and fruits.
He informed that at present, Haryana is giving the highest price of Rs 350 per quintal to sugarcane farmers. Apart from this, various crops such as gram, mustard, sunflower, bajra and maize are being procured on MSP by the state government.
The CM said the state has planned to convert paddy straw into compressed biogas.
