BHUBANESWAR: Social services, which constitute areas like health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and rural development, shared 34.68 per cent (per cent) of allocation in the State Budget 2021-22, posting a drop by two per cent. The allocation for economic services, including agriculture, has declined from 32.67 per cent in 2020-21 to 27.77 per cent in 2021-22.
As per the post budget analysis by Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), some of the major departments like Agriculture, Rural Development, Water Resource, W&CD and Disaster Management have got reduced allocation and general services shared the largest allocation as compared to the last fiscal. Although the share of Health and Family Welfare department has increased from 4.92 per cent to 5.39 per cent, the allocation in most of the key nutrition specific schemes has reduced against the previous year’s budgeted estimates.
While the provisioning for PDS witnessed the highest fall of Rs 83.66 crore, Mamata marked a fall of Rs 26.22 crore and Supplementary Nutrition Programme saw a reduction of Rs 48.06 crore. Priority has been given on drinking water supply through increased allocation under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). The allocation under JJM has been increased by three times from Rs 2,000 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 6,000 crore in 2021-22.
However, the allocation for water supply to habitations scheme for rural and urban sectors marked a decline of 36.2 per cent and 25.2 per cent respectively. The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Gramin and Urban witnessed 60 per cent and 28 per cent lower allocation respectively.Speaking at a webinar on ‘Budget Priorities during Difficult Time’, former chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said though the size of the budget has increased, the programme expenditure has reduced.
“It has been a challenge for the State government to generate revenue and go for quality expenditure,” he said. CYSD founder member Jagadananda said the Finance department should ensure that all programmes against which allocations have been made are executed successfully. Joint Secretary, Finance Satyapriya Rath, Sarita Supakar of RD University and Upali Mohanty of Odisha Budget and Accountability Centre also spoke.