PUDUCHERRY: The Union territory of Puducherry has achieved 93 percent utilisation of the budget outlay in 2020-2021, despite the COVID pandemic situation.
The government incurred an expenditure of Rs 8,342 crore as against the total outlay of Rs 9,000 crore which works out to 93 percent of the estimated expenditure, said Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan.
Delivering her maiden address in Tamil on the opening day of the budget session of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, she said that the revenue receipts of the government stood at Rs 8,419 crore as against the target of 9,000 crore in 2020-21 which is around 94 percent of the targeted revenue.
The realisation of higher revenue is significant especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic situation, she said. The financial resources of the Union territory are very limited especially after introduction of GST and the government is constrained to strike a balance between available resources and committed expenditure, said the Lt Governor.
The people of Puducherry have reposed their faith in the National Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Chief Minister N Rangasamy through this verdict which has vindicated the people-friendly policies and programmes implemented earlier by the government under his leadership, she said. She expressed hope that the government will strive to achieve its stated objective of ensuring peace, prosperity and development of Puducherry.
Further she urged the elected representatives to work hard under the guidance of the Chief Minister to fulfil the expectations of the people and make Puducherry prosperous, free from poverty and unemployment in the course of time. “I am confident that each one of you will strive hard for the upliftment of the people and especially for the socio-economic development of the Union territory,” she said.
She said that the government is making all-out efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and has largely succeeded and expressed confidence that the Union territory will be free from the pandemic soon with the cooperation of the government machinery and the people by following safety norms.
She expressed her gratitude and appreciation to all the frontline workers for their dedicated service.
Listing various achievements, she said that so far 10,696 farmers have benefited under the PM-Kisan scheme for which an amount of Rs 8.79 crores has been released to farmers. The Lt Governor mentioned with pride that the Union territory is the first state to post medical officers in all the 81 sub-centres for healthcare and transformed all the 40 primary health centres and 81 sub-centres into wellness centres.