Unimplemented announcements of Assam Budget 2019-20

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The State government did not implement some of the announcements made in its 2019-20 Budget, registering zero physical progress. The progress of some of the schemes of that fiscal was almost half.

These facts have come to light in the 'Action Taken Report (ATR) against Budget Announcements of 2019-20' published by the Finance Department.

According to the ATR, the target for additional classrooms, partitions, walls and electricity in the 2019-20 Budget was 28,766 elementary schools. However, the Department concerned provided such facilities to only 13,685 elementary schools. The physical progress of the scheme was 46.57 per cent of the target.

The target for providing school uniforms to the students of class IX and X standards was 6,50,509 students in that fiscal. However, the physical progress on this front remained zero.

The scheme for Rs 1 lakh to each of 4,000 government/ provincialized schools for furniture met the same fate. The physical progress of this scheme also remained zero.

The 2019-20 Budget also did announce providing bicycles to 2,25,000 girl students of class IX and X standards. However, not a single girl got a bicycle in that fiscal.

The project for a pharma park at Sipajhar also stands abandoned.

The target for the construction of roads by the PWD was 582 km (sanctioned) under the Asom Darshan Scheme. However, the department completed only 231 km roads.

The departments concerned also did not implement the incentives for employment generation, entrepreneurship, incentives for MUDRA Yojana and other small and medium enterprise loans as announced in that Budget. The comprehensive social security schemes as announced in the Budget also remained unimplemented.

The ATR has also shown many schemes that were properly implemented by the departments concerned. Finance Minister Ajanta Neog tabled the Budget for fiscal 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs 107317.55 crore. Since Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has given various responsibilities to the ministers, the physical progress of the announcements made in this Budget is something to keep tabs on. The implementation of the Budget announcements largely depends on the departments and the ministers leading them from the front.

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