Chhattisgarh Assembly passes Rs 1,876 cr supplementary budget

Chhattisgarh Assembly passed the Rs 1,876.67 crore supplementary budget with a voice vote here on Friday

Taking part in the discussion in the House today on second supplementary budget for the financial year 2013-14, Chief Minister Raman Singh said the state budget has increased from Rs 7,295 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 50,000 crore now and its maximum part is being spent on the welfare of the people.

"This is the first assembly of the state which has passed the Food and Nutritional Security Act to ensure proper food and nutrition to downtrodden families of the state, Singh said.

For the food security alone, provision of Rs 2,600 crore has been made in the budget, he said.

According to Singh, the Act not only provides rice, but nutrition as well and it has brought about a change in the lives of people.

As promised in the election manifesto, the government has launched the 'Atal Khetihar Bima Yojna' to provide insurance benefit to small and marginal farmers and farm labourers.

The supplementary budget makes provision for this, he said.

A provision of Rs 150 crore has been made for the increased salary of the education staff and an additional provision of Rs 28 crore has also been made for the distribution of free laptops and tablets to the students of graduation and post-graduation, he said.

Earlier, the leader of opposition, T S Singhdeo pointed out that though budgetary allocation is increasing, the state government has failed to make its optimum use.

He also talked on the issues of alleged irregularities in the land acquisition, corruption, fake ration cards.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Satyanarayan Sharma alleged that the state government has failed to prevent black-marketing of ration cards while irregularities in the allotment of mining leases. Several other MLAs took part in the discussion.