Rs 9829 cr for fund-starved schemes

Council of Ministers approve supplementary budget to be placed in winter session of Assembly

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Thursday decided to place a supplementary budget of `9,829 crore in the winter session of the Assembly to meet additional expenditure on several infrastructure projects and welfare schemes. The decision was at the meeting of Council of Ministers chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

“The Council of Ministers gave its stamp of approval to the additional expenditure of `9,829 crore and the first supplementary statement of expenditure for 2017-18 will be placed in the Assembly on November 30,” Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan behera told reporters after the meeting.

The Finance Minister said the supplementary budget will cover several schemes starting from sports to irrigation announced by the State Government. Besides, additional funds were required to meet the expenditure of some other schemes for which the Centre has drastically slashed its share of allocation.Ahead of the Bijepur by-election, the State Government has decided to implement State’s first underground pipeline-based irrigation system for the Assembly constituency in Bargarh district. The project named as Gangadhar Meher Lift Canal System will cost about `1250 crore and irrigate a gross command area of about 32,000 hectares including 25,600 hectares in Kharif and 7,000 hectares in Rabi season.

Informed sources said provision has been made in the first supplementary budget for the irrigation project which was approved by State Cabinet last month. Keeping elections to the urban local bodies (ULBs) next year in mind, the State Government has also made budgetary provision for several infrastructure projects for ULBs, it added.

The opposition Congress has taken strong exception to Finance Minister’s disclosure on the supplementary budget ahead of the Assembly session. “Divulging details of the supplementary budget by the Finance Minister is highly undemocratic and against established principles of parliamentary system. Such a thing has never happened before. The Finance Minister who is considered next to the Chief Minister has undermined the importance of the Assembly by disclosing the supplementary budget,” Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi said. Leader of the BJP legislature party KV Singhdeo said hisparty will bring a  privilege motion against the Finance Minister for revealing the suplementary budget before it is discussed in the Assembly.

The winter session of the Assembly is scheduled to commence on November 28 and will continue till December 30. While the supplementary budget will be placed before the Assembly on November 30, the Appropriation Bill will be tabled in the House on December 12.

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