Bangalore,Dec 08: Karnataka government has implemented 125 new proposals announced in the 2003-04 budget by Chief Minister S M Krishna, a top official said today. Chief secretary B S Patil after reviewing progress of programme implementation with department secretaries told reporters here that the chief minister had announced 168 new programmes while presenting the budget during this march.

He said steps have already been taken to implement the remaining programmes in the coming months.

Patil said Karnataka's achievement in utilising Central funds during 2002-03 was in the order of 94 per cent, in an apparent attempt to deny the "unsatisfactory note" struck over the state's performance recently by Union Rural Development Minister Kashiram Rana.

However, Patil did not mention the name of Rana while defending the state's performance in utilising Central funds.

Patil said during 2003-04, the state wanted to utilise the entire amount of Rs 685 crore coming from the Centre for rural development and thereby achieving 100 per cent utilisation.

He said the state on an average receives Rs 1200 crore to Rs 1400 crore annually from the Centre under various schemes. Patil said as part of the government's e-governance initiative, it has been decided to tender computerised acknowledgement to those who petition the government for redress of their grievances.

He said more than 1.60 lakh files out of two lakh that were pending in various departments since about a year have been cleared. Bureau Report