With an eye on civic body elections, Maharashtra deputy chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, Ajit Pawar on Monday tabled supplementary demands of Rs 57,509 crore on the first day of the monsoon session of Maharashtra state legislative assembly.
Interestingly, a huge chunk of the funds, running to Rs 17, 465 crore, has been allocated to urban development department to improve infrastructure in urban local bodies. This gains significance in view of the upcoming elections to 29 civic bodies.
The supplementary demand for grants is a request made to the legislative assembly for funds beyond what was originally allocated in the annual budget.
During the last budget as well, finance minister Ajit Pawar had tabled the supplementary demands worth Rs 6,480.20 crore despite objections from the opposition.
The demands include Rs 19,183 crore for mandatory expenses while Rs 34,661 crore for state government schemes and programs and Rs 36,664 crore for central government sponsored schemes and programs. Rs 11,042.76 crore has been earmarked for various grants as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission.
Next to urban development, public works department (PWD) has been allocated Rs 9068 crore to foot the bill of road contractors and execute various projects. The social justice department has been allocated Rs 3798 crore. The cooperative, marketing and textile department has been allotted Rs 2835 crore and the woman and child development department, Rs 2363 crore.
Slamming the government, Maharashtra Congress leader Nana Patole noted that the state has over Rs 10 lakh crore debt burden. On top of that, the state is paying an interest of over Rs 45,000 crore annually. Despite that, Mahayuti government is continuing to borrow money from the market and tabling the supplementary demand so that the contractors can gain.
He alleged that in the supplementary demand, only two departments – urban development and PWD were together given over Rs 26000 crore and both the departments are "contractors-driven departments."
“It shows that this government is working for the contractors. There is no scheme of the government that is actually helping the people. Mahayuti is working overtime to fill up the deep pockets of the contractors so that they can reap the benefit during the local body elections,” he alleged.
Maharashtra NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil on criticised the Mahayuti government claiming the state's fiscal balance has been severely disrupted.
The state's growing financial burden will lead to injustice towards the poor and marginalised communities, he further claimed.