Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday left for New Delhi to hold consultations with the Planning Commission to fix the plan size for the State for the financial year 2013-14.

The chief minister will also utilise his visit to the national capital to meet several union ministers and discuss State proposals needing clearance by the Centre.

He is also likely to discuss with the Congress high command the growing pressure on him to fill the four vacancies in the State cabinet. The BJP government, in the last budget of its five-year tenure presented by the then chief minister Jagadish Shettar, had fixed the plan size at Rs 42,030 crore.

The highest allocation was given to education sector (Rs 18,666 crore), followed by energy (Rs 10,831 crore) and urban development (Rs 9,654 crore).

Sources in the Finance department said the present government will make several changes to the sectoral allocations. The government’s flagship programme of providing 30 kg of rice at Re one per kg every month to Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders itself will cost the State exchequer Rs 4,400 crore per annum.

Siddaramaiah, Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and senior officers of the government will meet Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on June 26 to discuss the State’s plan size.

With the State’s four main resource mobilising sectors - commercial taxes, stamps and registration, transport and excise - making an average start in the first quarter, sources point out that the government will not be in a position to increase the plan size substantially higher than that fixed by the previous government.
The sources said it is likely to be fixed around Rs 42,500 crore.