The Union finance ministry has rejected the demand of the UT administration of grants of Rs 1,000 crore for departments such as police, health, education and transport.
Over four months ago, the UT finance department had sent its proposal of the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2016-17. The administration had based its demands on the recommendations of a Parliamentary standing committee.
“The proposal for cash supplementary of Rs 1,022 crore does not fit into category as mentioned in the DO (demi-official) letter of the budget division,” said Sunil Chaudhari, deputy director in the finance ministry, adding that the decision had the ‘approval of the competent authority’.
In its budget allocation for the fiscal, the finance ministry had allocated Rs 700 crore less than what had been projected by the administration under its plan schemes. The plan head is that section of the budget that provides for capital expenditure and funds development projects.
Analysts had said that the cut resulted due to the administration’s inability to spend just about 50% of the budget under the plan head for the last fiscal of 2015-16.
{{/usCountry}}Analysts had said that the cut resulted due to the administration’s inability to spend just about 50% of the budget under the plan head for the last fiscal of 2015-16.
{{/usCountry}}Parliamentary panel’s take
The parliamentary panel had said that the slashing of the plan budget will hit work on key projects such as the Regional Trauma Centre, the construction of a Police Housing Complex and several projects at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32.
The committee had noted that the budget allocation was ‘not in sync’ with what had been projected by the UT. It said the reduced allocation would affect projects of social infrastructure such as education, health and municipal corporation. It had recommended that the UT, along with the union ministry of home affairs, should do a follow-up with the finance ministry for its need for more funds.