Gandhinagar, July 27: To meet the special needs of the state, the Gujarat government on Thursday demanded a special package of Rs 31,190 crore from the 15th Finance Commission apart performance-based grants. According to a report by TOI, the state government has also asked for an additional Rs 9,654 crore to compensate the excise loss that the state incurred after the liquor prohibition.

In total, the Gujarat government has demanded Rs 31,190 crore additional grants to cater to the needs of the state. “We have also demanded additional compensation against the loss of Rs 9,654 crore excise duty due to liquor prohibition”, a top official of state finance ministry said. He further informed saying that with the demand for an overall increase in the percentage of central devolution of funds in proportion with the population ratio, the state has also demanded an increase in the performance-based grants.

The report further states that the government has demanded Rs 23,720 crore extra to control land degradation. A Finance Department official of Gujarat was quoted in the TOI report saying the state has demanded a special package of Rs 31,190 crore to cater for state-specific grants.  “Gujarat is facing the highest, 52.3% land degradation and our own funds are not sufficient to tackle this issue. So we have demanded Rs 23,720 crore special grants for land degradation”, the officer said.

The state government has demanded the grant for Narmada river, water resources, water supply and Kalpsar department. The big grant also aims to tackle issues like coastal erosion, salinity ingress, groundwater recharge, desalination, flood control, reuse of treated wastewater, infrastructure creation for water treatment and drinking water supply, the TOI report said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 27, 2018 09:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).