BHUBANESWAR: The expenditure in priority sectors of State Plan in 2015-16 uptoJanuary has crossed 60 per cent, recording an overall growth of around 29.78 per cent over the last fiscal. The State plan expenditure in agriculture and allied sectors till end of January of the current fiscal is to the tune of Rs 5,850 crore which is around 61 per cent of the budget estimate. The expenditure in this sector is 4.49 per cent more than that of the last financial year.
Infrastructure spending during the same period has been Rs 7,749 crore which is 61 per cent of the budget. The last year expenditure in this sector was around 51.28 per cent by this time. The spending in social sector has been Rs 13 186 crore which is 62 per cent of the budget. The last year expenditure in this sector up to January was around 55 per cent of the budget estimate. The revenue collection from own tax sources in the period under review has increased by 22 per cent to Rs 17,081 crore. Similarly, the revenue from non-tax sources has touched Rs 6 046 crore which is around8 per cent more than last financial year.
The overall revenue collection has also shown a growth of around 21 per cent by the end of January. The progress in expenditure and revenue collection was reviewed by Chief Secretary Aditya Padhi at the All Secretary meeting in the Secretariat on Tuesday. Additional Chief Secretary, Finance R Balakrishnan presented the revenue updates for discussion. The Chief Secretary advised all the Secretaries to keep up the pace of expenditure and avoid the rush of spending in the month of March. The departments were advised to focus on collection of arrear revenue through one time settlement instead of spending time in litigations. Padhi advised all the Secretaries to take up district visit programme regularly as it improves the quality of service delivery and also gives inputs for policy making.
Commissioner, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Krishan Kumar made a presentation on Smart City projects. While congratulating BMC for achieving top position among the cities in Smart City race, the Chief Secretary said this opportunity has come with challenges. As expectations from people and investors have increased, BMC must gear up service delivery mechanism to match expectations and harness opportunities. It has been decided to set up a separate drainage division in BMC for bringing management of all drains under one system. Various components of Smart City including traffic management, rapid mass transit system, parking management, emergency response and disaster mitigation were discussed.