Sikkim chief minister Mr Pawan Kumar Chamling,
who is also the minister-in-charge of finance, today placed
in the Assembly a Rs 0.26 crore deficit tax-free budget for
the year 2007-2008, with special emphasis on infrastructure
development and capacity building programmes.
In the annual budget, the total expenditure has been estimated
at Rs 5221.11 crore as against the estimated total revenue
of Rs 5220.85 crore. The year’s opening balance and
closing balance has been shown as Rs 169.60 crore and Rs 169.34
crore, respectively.
Highlighting the need for capacity building and skill empowerment
for developing the state’s human resources, Mr Chamling
announced that a full-fledged Directorate of Capacity Building
would be set up in the state and manned by experts.
A sum of Rs 10 crore has been allocated for the establishment
of the proposed directorate. Each department would also have
to allocate at least two percent of their annual expenditure
to the capacity building programmes, he said.
The panchayati raj institutions will also have to set aside
two percent of their total fund allocations exclusively for
capacity building exercises, the CM, said.
The chief minister has also set aside Rs 70 lakh in the budget
for the year 2007-08 for promoting foreign language learning
in the state.
“The objective is to create a huge pool of foreign language-speaking
Sikkimese so that they could walk in tandem with others in
this era of globalisation,” Mr Chamling, said.
The budget has also touched the environmental issues.
Voicing the state’s concerns over the reported retreat
of glaciers in Sikkim, Mr Chamling proposed for constitution
of an expert group to study the state of glaciers and its
impact on water system. A sum of Rs 30 lakh has been set aside
for this purpose, he said.
The rural management department and public works department
will be setting aside two percent of their budget allocations
for the state green mission and other departments will contribute
one percent for the mission, he said.
“We will be more open to encouraging projects modelled
on public-private partnership (PPP) format particularly with
regard to infrastructure”, Mr Chamling, said. He cited
the example of several hydel power projects and said that
similar initiatives covering other sectors like tourism, horticulture
and urban infrastructure would be explored in PPP module.
Earlier, addressing the House, Sikkim governor Mr V Rama Rao
said that the budget proposals have been formulated keeping
in mind the objectives and policy prescriptions envisaged
in the 11th Five Year Plan.
“A number of new policies and thrust areas have been
identified in the 11th Plan document. These have been incorporated
in our budget proposals for the year 2007-08,” he said.
The first day of the budget session saw introduction of 10
bills in the House, including the Sikkim Municipalities Bill.
Courtesy: The Statesman |
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