New Delhi, Sep 9 :All development projects scheduled to start this year have been stalled to meet the estimated Rs.200 billion expenses for the devastating Bihar floods and the hiked pay packets of government employees.

The instructions have gone out to all ministries in a circular issued Monday.

"At least 30 major programmes across various government departments will not take off this year,” said a senior health ministry official.

“The decision was taken to meet the expenses incurred due to the revised pay commission and the ravaging flood in Bihar. They need at least Rs.20,000 crores (Rs.200 billion) for the two," the official told IANS.

Discussing the impact on the health ministry, he said the "first major victim" of the diktat was the Rs.80 billion National Urban Health Mission that was set to kick off in a couple of months. Replicating the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the mission aims at providing proper healthcare facilities to the urban poor and slum dwellers.

The mission was to be launched in over 400 cities and towns across India with focus on over 55 million slum dwellers.

The National School Health Programme to screen students and provide them health cards will also face hurdles, the official said.

The central government had on Aug 14 accepted the recommendations of the sixth pay commission and raised the salaries of all its employees. The extra pay will cost the central government Rs.157 billion from its annual budget and Rs.64 billion from its railway budget this fiscal.

In Bihar, over 2.5 million people in 16 districts have been affected with the Kosi changing its course and flooding large swathes of the state. Many are feared dead and major epidemics threaten the lives of the tens of thousands of people in relief camps.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already declared the Bihar flood a national calamity.