The Assembly on Thursday cleared the first supplementary budget of this fiscal worth Rs 1,987.74 crore. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy defending the demand for grants said that most of the amount would go as the State’s share to central schemes and the contingency fund withdrawals made.
Roy while responding to the objections coming from the Opposition said that the Government is doing exceptionally well on the development front as well on financial management.
“Rs 998 crore out of total Rs 1987.74 crore is to contribute to the central schemes as our share. Also, the biggest share has gone to health sector which is on priority. Till date more than Rs 9000 crore out of about 28000 crore target has been collected as revenue which is a great feat in terms of financial management,” said Roy.
He said that number of critical illnesses covered under the Government assistance scheme have gone up from 85 to 117 while number of medical institutions associated have doubled and reached to 80. “The Government has during 2017-18 provided Rs 8.22 crore as assistance to the poor persons with critical diseases. We have through the budget made a provision of Rs 434 crore which is going to be used primarily for these facilities,” said the Minister in his reply to the ‘Cut Motion’.
Talking about energy sector, Roy claimed that the situation has improved in last two years and there is no dearth of power supply in the State. “We have issues involved on transmission and distribution infrastructure which is causing power cuts. Sufficient power availability is there since the concept of national grid has been floated. This would negate the factor about location of power generated,” he added.
Taking forward the debate on the ‘Cut Motion’ JMM’s Yogendra Prasad, Yogendra Nath Mahto and Kunal Sadangi expressed concern over situation of health services and power supply along with shortage of sand across the State.
The Minister replied that supply of sand had been hit due to an NGT order which has been withdrawn after the Government’s interventions. “The issue is resolved and there would be no shortage of sand in future. Our efforts have started paying results as well as the State has recorded 8.6 per cent growth which is higher than even Gujarat and most of other developed states,” he said.
At the same time, Roy also stated that over one lakh jobs have been given since the Government came to power. On the new financial year pattern, the Minister said the State Government has apprised the Centre about its readiness to it and once approved January to December fiscal would come in place any time.