Maha govt tables supplementary demands of Rs 4284 cr

The Maharashtra government on Monday tabled supplementary demands worth Rs 4,284.65 crore in both Houses of the state legislature, including funds for pension of freedom fighters and to help milk producers.

Of this, Rs 3,146.43 crore is the demand for additional expenditure till the next session while the rest of the amount pertains to expenses already incurred by the government.

"Rest of the amount has already been spent and we want to make a provision for it," Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said.

The supplementary demand figure jumped because of the state's government's decision to allot Rs 2,000 crore in its contingency fund, he said.

"An additional burden came following the Supreme Court's decision to issue pension to some freedom fighters who were earlier denied it due to technical reasons by the earlier government in 2004," Mungantiwar said.

"We had to make some financial arrangement to make extra payment to these pensioners, which is as high as Rs 482 crore," he said.

The state government also made a financial allocation of Rs 305 crore for milk procurement.

The dairies have been asked to shell out extra money to milk suppliers, for which budget allocation was not made in March last year. Hence, Rs 305 crore has been sought under the supplementary demands, the minister said.