Porvorim: Govt got the assembly’s nod to spend an additional Rs 1061 crores to cover expenses not approved in the Rs 28,162 cr budgetary outlay presented by chief minister Pramod Sawant in March.The chief minister informed legislators in the House that Rs 175 crore will be spent to strengthen the state’s electricity infrastructure, Rs 100 crore will be allocated to the civil supplies department to provide LPG gas cylinders as per the scheme introduced by the department.Govt also proposes to hand over Rs 70 cr to the water resource departments for infrastructure works across the various constituencies, while the PWD will get Rs 50 crore for road works. The drinking water department will get an additional Rs 50 crore while Goa Medical College will get Rs 67.5 crore to complete the cancer block.The Appropriation Bill for supplementary grants also creates space for the labour department to spend an additional Rs 35 crore towards the setting up of the ESI Medical Hospital. Most interestingly, Sawant has provided Rs 25 crore for the celebration of 25 years of the assembly complex.Govt has also provided Rs 42 crore for higher education and Rs 20 crore for the EPF payments of the contractual employees.Sawant said that an upward revision in the state’s projected GSDP and a devolution of central taxes to the tune of Rs 800 crore in this financial year created space for additional borrowing and additional expenditure.“For the last five months, the state had received one additional instalment of Rs 398 crore from govt of India in August, and the state expects one similar additional installment in the balanced term of the financial year,” said Sawant.The opposition mocked the govt’s budgetary planning.“When you passed a full budget just five months ago, and now you come with a Bill for supplementary demands, this shows that this is just a superficial exercise. It is an admission of failure of budgeting and failure of governance,” said opposition leader Yuri Alemao.
