'HP needs Centre's support till 2010'

shimla: himachal chief minister prem kumar dhumal, on friday, said the state would become fully self-reliant by 2010 but till then the centre would have to bail it out by either giving special packages or a long term loan. talking to newspersons here, he said the state had submitted its rs 1,720 crore plan to the centre and was hopeful that it would meet its entire deficit.‘‘we are hopeful of this because we have adopted concrete measures to curtail non-productive expenses and mobilise additional resources,� he added. however, he hastened to add that he had made it clear to the centre that there were limitations to how much resources this tiny hill state could mobilise, but if the hydel power projects in the pipeline could be completed before time, like malana, then the financial could improve before the stipulated time. coming out strongly against the previous congress governments, at the centre and the state, for ignoring himachal’s interests, dhumal said that had they helped the state get its due share following the punjab reorganisation act 1966, which was okayed by parliament, the present economical situation would not have resulted.the arrears are today touching a whopping rs 4,000 crores,he added. ‘‘the irony is that the state is todate facing the problem of the pong dam oustees who have lost their land and have yet to be settled, but punjab is getting all the power and himachal nothing,� he added.the chief minister said the congress leaders during their regime talked highly of the 20,000 mw hydel potential in the state but did precious little to harness it. kaul singh refutes ‘outsider’ charge former vidhan sabha speaker kaul singh thakur, on friday, refuted the charge that congress legislature party leader virbhadra singh, had called chief minister prem kumar dhumal an outsider at the congress rally held, at palampur,on wednesday. “virbhadra singh had only said that dhumal and his government were protecting the interest of outsiders, at the cost of that of the residents of himachal pradesh,� he added. he said that by terming the rally a flop, himachal tourism development corporation chairman rakesh pathania was trying to turn away from the ground reality. ‘‘the people know that the rally was grand success, attended by thousands from palampur and parts of kangra,’’ he added. kaul singh said,‘‘as far as development of kangra district is concerned, the residents know that developmental works have come to standstill due to discrimination by the dhumal government. ‘‘i request the government to issue white paper about the developmental works undertaken, and money actually spent on these projects,’’ he said.