Imphal, March 12, 2010: The chief Minister of Manipur, O Ibobi will sit together with the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia on March 17 to finalised the state's plan size for the year 2010-11. Official sources said, in order to attend the meeting, Chief Minister O Ibobi will be leaving Imphal for Delhi tomorrow.

The Chief Minister may be accompanied by heads of departments and other responsible officials of the state government on his tour.

A group discussion will be held between the officials of the Planning Commission of India and officials of the state government headed by the Chief Secretary on Sunday afternoon.

Matters concerning how much of the funds released by the Planning Commission for the financial year 2009-2010 had been utilised, what were the problems, etc.

will be discussed minutely, the sources said.

After the officials' meeting, Chief Minister Ibobi will meet the Dy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and together finalise the plan size of Manipur.

The sources further said that the plan outlay for 2009-10 was proposed to be Rs 2,000 crore.

However, in the revised estimate, additional fund of Rs 38.88 crore meant to be ACA, BADP and AIBP for shifting cultivation was provided.

Finally the plan money was Rs 2,038.88 crore.

The sources also revealed that the Chief Minister would urge the Planning Commission to increase the plan money by 40% more than that of earlier.

The state government would urge the Centre to provide Rs 2,851.63 crore.

Out of this amount, the state would urge the Centre to make Rs 800 crore Special Plan Assistance (SPA) fund.

The fact that the state government has not been able to utilise the funds in time is all because the Planning Commission has never released the funds in time.

At the same time, the Department of Finance has directed all the heads of the departments to return all the money that had not been utilised by March 17. March 31 being the last date for utilising the plan money, the state government has started making arrangements to put the rest of the money that could not be utilised in the state account 8449.

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