The state finance minister Prakash Pant held a detailed discussion regarding the utilisation of the share of 1 per cent for the welfare schemes for women and 1 per cent for road safety from the 2 per cent CESS being levied by the excise department while chairing a meeting with the officials of the finance, excise, women empowerment, panchayati raj, urban development departments at the Secretariat on Thursday.
It is learnt that he discussed with the additional chief secretary Women Welfare Radha Raturi regarding the various proposed projects related to the women welfare, including construction of one home each in Dehradun and Almora, construction of child home for Divyang boys/girls in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar and construction of home for general boys/girls besides construction of juvenile home, resettlement and rehabilitation of children and their management.
The finance minister instructed the urban development and panchayati raj secretary to prepare a scheme on the basis of changed/revised information of rural and urban areas.
He said that due to the inclusion of certain rural areas in the urban areas, they would not get the funds from the 14th Finance Commission for such gram panchayats. He said that in such a situation, a comprehensive action plan should be prepared for providing development funds of the urban villages.
He further said during the meeting that a detailed proposal should be made for proper allocation of the budget for infrastructure development in the rural and urban areas from the funds to be released by the State Finance Commission.
This was an imperative to ensure that the development of the villages included in the urban areas is not affected, Pant said.Among those present at the meeting were the additional chief secretary Ranveer Singh, secretary Finance Amit Negi, in-charge secretary Planning Ranjit Sinha, commissioner Industries Saujanya and excise commissioner V Shanmugam.