Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Friday, demanded from the Centre a special economic package for the state as 14 districts of Haryana have been included in the National Capital Region (NCR). He urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to consider the demand.

Speaking at a pre-budget consultation meeting with Sitharaman in New Delhi on Friday, the CM said Haryana should be given a special economic package keeping in mind that a lot of resources have to be spent on the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in the areas which are part of the NCR.

Khattar said Haryana’s of 25,327 square kilometre area and population of 164.3 lakh comes under the NCR. The region consumes a lot of resources for infrastructure, water, sanitation, urban development and connectivity, he said.

The CM said in NCR, the Haryana government is spending money on the development of the KMP Expressway, the Rail Orbital Project, the development of five Cities of 2.5 lakh hectares along the KMP Corridor as a Panchgram Vision, an Integrated Multi Modal Logistics Hub at Narnaul, an International Horticulture Market at Gannaur and other big projects. The demand made by the Haryana government for a special package from the Central Government for the implementation of these projects is justified, Khattar added.

He thanked the Central government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sitharaman for continuously giving special assistance for the Capital Investment Scheme to the states in the form of a 50-year interest-free loan in 2022-23 also. Haryana has received Rs 874 crore under this scheme in 2022-23 for the implementation of the Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor Project.  He requested the Central government to continue this scheme in future also.

Khattar said the state has done tremendous work to strengthen the health infrastructure of the state along with making commendable progress in medical education.

“Medical colleges have either been opened in every district of Haryana or the process of opening the same has started.  The number of undergraduate seats in medical colleges in Haryana was 700 in 2015 and we aim to increase this up to 3035 by 2025,” he said.