New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS): Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday urged the Central government to announce a policy decision regarding buying of unutilised land of central public sector units by the state governments which are either running in losses or have been closed in their state.

He was speaking at a meeting of pre-budget consultative committee of finance ministers of states convened by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here.

Quoting the example of the land of central public units in Haryana which are lying idle, the Chief Minister said that 205 acres of land of Cement Corporation of India in Dadri and 90 acres of land of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd in Gurugram are lying unutilized.

Similarly, 70 acres of land of Hindustan Insecticide Ltd in Gurugram is also lying unutilized.

The state government is ready to buy these lands and he has written letters to the Central government several times and has also held meetings in this regard.

He said there has been only one success on this issue of Haryana, which is to purchase the land of HMT in Pinjore.

Out of 446 acres of land in this public sector unit, the state purchased 297 acres at collector rate and 149 acres with no construction over it at 60 per cent of collector rate in 2018.

Khattar urged that in the budget address, a policy decision should be announced on the issue that if a central public sector unit has been lying closed by the Central government and a state government wants to buy this land, then it would be mandatory for all the public sector undertakings to sell it on collector rate plus 20 per cent.

He said with this decision the Central public undertakings would get a large amount and the burden on the Union Budget would be reduced.