The news that the Chief Minister has received a lukewarm and tepid response to his initiative of seeking proposals from departments has not only reflected poorly on the bureaucrats but also the ministers that head the respective departments.
The departments have proved to be all at sea when it comes to putting forth budget proposals.
To recall, the Chief Minister issued instructions to all ministers and heads of departments to prepare a comprehensive plan and new proposals for a meeting ahead of the State’s budget on February 22 which would include evaluation of schemes under various departments, developmental works, pending proposals, success and failures of schemes, technical hurdles and proposed improvements in legislation.
With legislators often having to play their unofficial roles of being messiahs of development as well as having to be lawmakers and represent their constituencies, the resulting compromise is often on the legislative front.
However in this case, when the ministers and in some cases MLAs are being given an actual opportunity to offer their proposals which can be included in the budget, the lukewarm response is surprising, to say the least.
This is in tune with similar lamentation both from the Chief Minister as well as the panchayat minister Mauvin Godinho who have complained that despite funds being available, the respective departments or panchayats simply do not do their “homework” and prepare proposals and send to the government.
This they say is because of the inability of departments to get proposals drafted in a timely manner and procrastination by departments. All of which is true and a big part of why governments are renowned to be sluggish.
If one will recall, government spending and projects have not taken off over the last few months due to the change of taxation regime to the newer Goods and Services Tax regime which has held back government infrastructure development works by a significant period. The new budget would be an opportunity to correct these deviations and in fact, plan properly for them through budgetary allocation or borrowings if necessary.
Nonetheless, with still around a week to go before the budget is finalised and printed, ministers, MLAs and departments should pull up their socks and proposals, however, rushed, could still be sent to the Chief Minister’s office for inclusion in the budget.
A good budget is absolutely essential to lift the economic mood across the country and especially in the state as businesses careen towards normalcy as they seek to recover from the government induced body blows. There is too much at risk for legislators and governments to be taking things lightly.
