Disaster and unexpected events affecting people’s lives could be managed on a larger scale and without taking the pain of going through the Ordinance route to provide timely relief as the Jharkhand Assembly on Thursday approved a large budget towards Contingency Fund to meet emergent situations. With this approval, the State will have Rs500-crore in Contingency Fund to manage disasters.
Earlier the government had to meet emergency requirements with Rs150-crore and had to seek additional requirements of funds through ordinances thus propelling the government to increase the fund size. The State Government while presenting the bill for approval banked on its past experiences and inadequate fund as natural calamities like periodical drought and cyclone wrecked havoc in the State.
“When the State Government experienced that sometimes Rs300, 500, 700 crore is needed to due to certain contingent situations then we decided that the size of the fund be increased upto Rs500-crore so that at least requirements upto Rs500-core can be met. Whatever Government has decided is based on its experiences and it’s not a knee jerk reaction,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Saryu Roy.
Although getting the bill cleared on the house was a cake walk for the government it had to explain situations that warranted the decision. Roy informed the house that government’s decision had come in the wake of ordinances that were issued in 2009, 2011 and 2013-14 when government had to take the route of ordinance while drought and cyclone took its toll.
Earlier, the opposition expressed reservations at the utilization of funds meant to emergency situations and accused misappropriation of the fund for activities that do not qualify under any type of contingency.
“In last 14 years, the fund has been spent for works which do not come under any calamity. We have seen that the fund has been used for buying vehicles, paying salaries and it has been highlighted in the audit report as well. Additional budget can be obtained through complimentary budget as well,” added MlA, Alamgir Alam.
The State Government expressed its preference for increasing the fund size in the budget session rather than going through ordinance route at different points of time.