Kokrajhar: The Chief executive member of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Pramod Boro presented the normal budget of Rs. 602.36 crore for the session 2021-22 during the budget session of Bodoland Territorial Council Legislative Assembly (BTCLA) under State Own Priority Development (SOPD) on Friday.
The estimated receipt and expenditure of the normal budget of BTC for the year 2021-22 is Rs. 3222.47 crore and Rs. 3310.67 crore respectively with Rs. 88.19 crore deficits.
The budget gave maximum emphasize
to education, PWD and health with Rs. 86.50 crore, Rs. 75.80 crore, Rs. 56.10 crore respectively. Agriculture, irrigation, forest and P&RD department are also given special priority.
The budget includes Rs. 37.99 crore for the renovation and maintenance of Bodoland Guest Houses situated in Guwahati (2 nos), New Delhi (2 nos), Kolkata, Siliguri and Kokrajhar. The budget also allocated constructions of Bodoland Houses in Bengaluru, Chennai and Diphu in Karbi Anglong. The budget of 2021-22 also gives provision for payment of Rs. 4 lakh each to the next kin of those who lost their lives during the Bodoland movement including victimized families.
Giving emphasis on educational infrastructures of higher education, an amount of Rs. 15 crore has been earmarked for Bodoland University, Rs. 5 crore for Bineswar Brahma Engineering College. The budget session also decided to introduce new financial system with name and style-United Fund besides Chief Xohay Fund, Chief’s Peace Initiative, Bodoland Innovation and Transformation Agency (BITA) and Goodwill Projects.
In his budget speech, the BTR chief Boro said 42 numbers of projects have been approved or completed under Rs. 500 crore packages and additional package for 23 numbers of projects has been approved for implementation under Rs. 250 crore packages of which 15 number of projects are completed and the rest are in progress. He also said efforts have been taken to carry forward all round development of the council with his compression of non essential expenditure, close monitoring of various departmental schemes and programmes avoiding wastefulness, prioritization of public expenditure and most crucially, the strict enforcement of financial discipline to accelerate the peace and development and creating transparency in the administrative machinery of the council.
The opposition members from the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) continue to boycott the assembly and abstain from participating in the session for the third time.
