Chandigarh May 17: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal while welcoming the final tranche of Centre's Rs. 20 lakh crore economic package, announced by the Union Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman today, expressed his special gratitude towards Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi for increasing borrowing limits of states from 3 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to 5 percent in 2020-21, thereby giving extra resource to the State Government.

In a statement issued here today, Mr. Manohar Lal said that this decision would certainly give a major boost to the efforts made by Haryana Government and help in expeditiously achieving the targets envisaged for various sectors that have been impacted due to COVID-19.

While thanking Prime Minister for making important announcements related to the education sector, he said that Centre's initiative of Technology-driven education through DIKSHA. PM e-VIDYA programme for multi-mode access to digital or online education would not only help lakhs of students studying in Haryana, who are unable to attend their schools amid COVID-19 crisis but would undoubtedly benefit many aspiring children across the country. He said that Haryana has already taken many steps in promoting Technology-driven education as since April 15, new classes for more than 52 lakh students have been started through cable and DTH channels under the distance education program to ensure that students of Government and private schools in Haryana do not suffer academic loss.

The Chief Minister also praised Centre's new initiative ‘MANODARPAN’ to extend psycho-social support to students, teachers and families for mental health and emotional well-being.

He thanked the Central Government for announcing an additional Rs 40,000 crore to MGNREGA scheme as it will surely help in generation of jobs in rural areas.