Rs 270 Paddy Bonus to farmer, Raman presents Election Budget

     Raipur, February 23, 2013: Couple of months ahead of the general election to Chhattisgarh Assembly, the State BJP government today announced Rs 270 per quintal bonus to farmer, while presenting a Budget of Rs 44,169 crore for 2013-14.

      To fulfil the promise made to the farmers, the state government would give Rs 270 bonus per quintal of procured paddy for the year 2012-2013, Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh told the state assembly while presenting his seventh and his Government’s tenth budget today.

     For the Rs 270 bonus, a total of Rs 1750 crore is allocated in the budget for the 2013-2014, Singh said.

     The bonus would increase the prosperity of the farmers, he added.

     Presenting a deficit budget, Singh said the total expenditure for 2013-14 would be Rs 44,169 crore, against the revenue receipt of Rs 43,977 crore, a deficit of Rs 192 crore.

     Taking the deficit of Rs 1485 crore of 2012-13, the total budgetary deficit would reach Rs 1677 crore in 2013-14, the Chief Minister said.

     Making a provision of four per cent of the total budget for Health sector, Singh said the next fiscal the Health would get Rs 1708 crore, which is 34 per cent more from this year.

      Increasing 15 per cent from the previous year, the allocation for School Education has been increased to Rs 5195 crore. This is 12 per cent of the total budget.

     For the welfare of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe a provision of Rs 3503 Crore has been made, an increase of 14 per cent from the previous year.

     Stating that the irrigation percentage has increased from 23 to 33 per cent in the last nine years, the Chief Minister said in this budget a provision of Rs 2574 crore has been made for Irrigation sector.

    For the food security a total of Rs 2000 are being allocated, he said adding in 61 non-scheduled blocks the yellow dal scheme would be introduced from next fiscal.

     For storing fertilisers, a provision of Rs 400 crore interest free loan has been made for the MARKFED for construction of godowns, Singh said adding in the year 2011-12 an allotment of Rs 100 crore was made for the same.

     The Budget allocation for Women and Child Welfare Department has been increased by 33 per cent to Rs 1346 crore this year.

     For drinking water and sanitation, increasing the budgetary allocation by ten per cent the government allocated Rs 575 crore for the Public Health Engineering Department.

     For Forest Conservation and development Singh allocated Rs 1127 crore, a hike of 10 per cent from the previous year.

      For Public Works Department an allocation of Rs 3668 has been made, a hike of 18 per cent from this year, the Chief Minister said adding in the last nine years Rs 7000 crore has been invested to increase the density of road from 0.26 Km in 2000 to 0.69 Km per Sq Km at present.

      For Culture and Tourism a provision of Rs 105 Crore has been made.

     In 2013-2014 the Electricity Distribution Company would be given Rs 136 Crore as grant.

     For Police, Jail Administration and Transport a provision of Rs 2392 has been made, but the government has not clarified how much has been allocated to Police Department only.

     The government has also made provision for setting up of a Judicial Academy in the state for the training of the judicial officials.

      The government has also brought in a plan for accident insurance scheme for the journalists, of which 75 per cent would be borne by the state government, Singh said.

      Similarly the senior journalists above the age of 62 would be provided a pension of Rs 5000 per month.

      The Government has not imposed any new tax and rationale some of the existing tax structures.