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Government looks to Centre for budgetary assistance
Pant raised the issue of the state facing paucity of financial resources owing to Rs 2,000 crore annual cut in the central budgetary assistance.
The BJP government has urged the Centre for a “substantial” budgetary assistance from the central pool, citing paucity of financial resources just months before its second budget presentation in the assembly.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat though stated that the Centre assured its full assistance to boost development in Uttarakhand. The statement comes a day after his trip to Delhi where he had separate meetings with five Union ministers, including finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Uttarakhand finance minister Prakash Pant also attended a pre-budget meeting chaired by Jaitley where the former presented the details relating to the proposed 2018-19 annual state budget and “other” proposed plans.
Pant raised the issue of the state facing paucity of financial resources owing to Rs 2,000 crore annual cut in the central budgetary assistance, an official note read. The slash occurred after 14th Pay Commission recommendations came into effect. Pant urged the Centre to release an additional amount of Rs 5,600 crore.
Rawat raised the demand for green bonus, urging Jaitley that the state should be paid additional benefit in lieu of its eco system services. He highlighted the long pending demand for an additional monetary assistance of Rs 10 crore for developing a network of ropeways. The CM sought an allocation of Rs 2,900 core for construction of the long pending Jamrani Dam project and suggested that it be included under a national project.
During a meeting with Prakash Javedkar, the Union HRD minister agreed to approve a budget of Rs 14 crore for a model college for Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. Rawat urged the Centre to provide budgets for all projects, including the centrally funded schemes, coming up in the state at a ratio of 90:10.
Javedkar approved the proposal that the proposed National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Srinagar be allowed to come up on a separate campus each at Jaletha and Sumadi. He assured Rawat of sanctioning a long pending allocation of Rs 211 crore for the state under the Rashtriya Madhayamik Siksha Abhiyan.
Pant said he urged Jaitley that Uttarakhand should be included in the Mahabharat Tourism Circuit being developed in the country. “We made the demand because we have a number of remnants of that (Mahabharat) period.”
