BHUBANESWAR: The Government today presented its first supplementary budget of Rs 2,906.70 crore for approval of the Assembly amidst ‘Jai Jagannath’ chanting by the Opposition. They were demanding resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the Vedanta University issue.
The Government has made supplementary provision of ` 1,185.97 crore for State plan schemes, ` 121 crore towards its share for Central schemes and ` 475.80 crore as matching grant for Centrally-sponsored schemes. However, a major chunk of ` 1,123.89 crore is earmarked for unplanned schemes.
A substantial portion of the additional budget was made for the social sector. While the Government has made a budgetary provision of ` 2,197 crore for the Women and Child Development, a supplementary provision of ` 337.54 crore was required.
Over ` 70 crore is required for the new pensioners under the national old age pension scheme while an additional ` 52.8 crore is made for beneficiaries under the Indira Gandhi Disabled Pension Scheme.
A provision of ` 100 crore is made for supplementary nutrition scheme. While an additional ` 60 crore is required for the mid-day meal scheme, the balance ` 40 crore will go to the supplementary nutrition scheme.
Reiterating the Government’s commitment for educational infrastructure development in the Left wing extremist-affected areas, Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei told mediapersons that a provision of ` 198 crore has been made for construction of hostels for tribal students and an additional ` 44 crore for construction of hostels for Scheduled Tribe girls.
The Minister said additional budgetary provision has been made to take care of the stipends of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe students.
A significant portion of the supplementary budget will go to the School and Mass Education (` 389 crore) and the Higher Education (` 350 crore) to meet the salary expenses of teachers.
For infrastructure development, an additional provision of ` 135 crore has been made for the Works Department while `142 crore will be utilised for rural development, the Minister said.
If the supplementary budget is approved, the total annual budget of the State for the current fiscal will be ` 42,403 crore.