Ukhand tables Rs 40,422 cr budget; focuses on education,roads

The Uttarakhand government Friday presented a deficit budget of Rs 40,422.20 crore for 2016-17 with thrust on school education, disaster management, rural development and disaster management.

Total expenditure for 2016-17 is estimated to be Rs 40,422.20 crore whereas total receipts for the fiscal are estimated to be Rs 39,912.00 crore, leading to a deficit of Rs 510.20 crore.

The plan expenditure is estimated to be Rs 15,931.60 crore.

The highest allocations have been made for school education at Rs 6,238 crore, followed by roads and bridges department at Rs 2,392.07 crore, rural development at Rs 2319.36 crore and disaster management Rs 2,131.56 crore.

 
Besides,medical, health, family welfare, homoeopathic and ayush department has been allocated Rs 1,742.90 crore, internal security Rs 1,595.87 crore and Rs 1274.70 crore for irrigation and flood control.

A provision of Rs 1,273.96 crore has been made for social welfare followed by Rs 902.99 crore for child development and women's empowerment.

Presenting the pre-poll budget in the Assembly, State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh said it reflects as much the aspirations of the people of the state as the state government'svision of inclusive development.

She also spoke highly of the state government for working consistently to overcome the challenges thrown up by the 2013 disaster and streamlining 'chardham yatra' for which around 10 lakh pilgrims visited the state in the last season.

Hridayesh said she was confident that the number of visitors to the four famous Himalayan shrines will double up next season which begins in May this year.

An early warning system, automatic weather stations, automatic raingauge system and 64 automatically run MeT centres are being set up in a number of vulnerable areas of Dehradun, Tehri, Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts under the World Bank and Asian Development Bank aided skill development programmes, she said.

This is the last budget of the Congress government headed by Harish Rawat as the state goes to polls early next year.