Doubling up as Finance Minister of the State, Chief Minister Raghubar Das today presented his fifth budget in the tune of Rs 85,429 crore for financial year 2019-20 in the Jharkhand State Assembly with thrust in core sectors of development including Agriculture and Allied activities, Energy, Women & Child Welfare, Irrigation, Roads and Health.
The size of the budget witnessed a 6.5 per cent increase from previous year with 12 per cent raise in development schemes’ share from Rs 46,503 crore in FY 2018-19 to Rs 52,282 crore in 2019-2020. The government has also tried to curtail its non planned expenditure from Rs 33,697 crore in the year 2018-19 to Rs 33,145 crore in the 2019-20 budget, which comes to around 1.6 per cent.
Presenting the Budget Das said in the House that the government has focussed on five sectors where there was need to pump in funds for development. In the agriculture and allied sector there is a 45 per cent increase from Rs 2,675 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 3,891 crore in 2019-20. Similarly, the Energy sector has seen a 30 per cent increase in budgetary allocations from Rs 3460 crore in FY 2018-19 to Rs 4526 crore in FY 2019-20.
Also, the government gone for 26 per cent increase in the Women and Child Development Sector from Rs 3,400 crore in FY 2018-19 to Rs 4,300 crore in FY 2019-20. The irrigation sector has witnessed 20 per cent growth with aloocation of Rs 2526 crore in the budget this year. The Roads sector including rural and urban roads have also seen an increase in budgetary allocation of 20 per cent from Rs 7,200 crore to Rs 8,625 crore for FY 2019-20. The health sector has also been pushed with 15 per cent growth from Rs 2,600 in FY 2018-19 to Rs 2,964 for the FY 2019-20.
The government has proposed a provision of Rs 2,000 crore for Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojna. Also provisions have been made for ‘Sujalam Sufalam Yojna’, ‘Mithi Kranti Yojna’ and other schemes.
Delivering his Budget speech the CM said that the number of families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is very high in the State and in order to fulfil government’s committed to their welfare and development provision of Rs 27,142.60 crore has been made in the Budget. The proposed funds are 11.19 per cent more than the previous year, he said.
The CM said that houses are being built in fast pace under the Prime Minister's Housing Scheme. So far 3,61,861 houses has been constructed out of target of 5,28,791.With the aim of accelerating the construction of the house, it has been decided to give full amount in 3 installments instead of 5 installments. Permission has been granted to construct roof from the Prime Minister's housing scheme in inaccessible areas. Under this scheme, the target of construction of 150,000 houses in the year 2019-20 has been set. The CM said that on the lines of the Prime Minister's Housing Scheme, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Housing Scheme is being run by the State Government with its own fund. In addition to the families of widow, families of victims of natural calamities and abandoned women arealso being given the benefit of this scheme.
In view of the need to develop the traditional craftsmanship and skills prevailing in the villages, the government has decided to start a new scheme in the name of Chief Minister Livlihood Promotion Scheme in the year 2019-20. Under the scheme, self-help groups of men will be formed and they will be provided technical training, skill development and financial assistance so that their income can be increased continuously and traditional craft can also be conserved and enhanced.
He said that in the course of the formation of Sakhi Mandals, it was found that there is a need to carry out special work in different areas such as health, education, child development, social security and livelihood for the uplift of the special tribal families, so that these special tribal Families can be brought to mainstream. In order to fulfill these objectives, the new scheme, named as Birsa Special Tribal Development Scheme, is being started in 2019-20. This will benefit about 10,000 families.
The CM, during his speech paid tributes to Netaji Subhash Chndra Bose and Former PM Atal BIhari Vajpayee. He also read out few lines from the poem written by Vajpayee and said that the government in the directions of PM Narendra Modi is committed to realise the dreams of Vajpayee which he saw while carving out Jharkhand as a separate State. The CM also paid tributes to the martyrs and revolutionaries of Jharkhand reading aloud few lines in their honour.