the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in his budget presented on Thursday has apparently given extra importance to the power and non-conventional energy sources, health, education, waste management and skill development sectors if the quantum of allocations made to the budget heads under these departments is anything to go by.
Also, Deputy Chief Minister, Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Panchayat and Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho and Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo are the bunch of ministers whose portfolios have collective received much higher allocations than last year in the budget presented by Sawant.
The second deputy chief minister Manohar (Babu) Ajgaonkar apparently did not find much favour with Sawant’s fund allocations despite holding the all important tourism portfolio.
However, by virtue of also holding the sports portfolio, Ajgaonkar will not mind the stick as the hosting of the National Games this year has received a separate allocation of Rs 250 crore.
Following is the allocation for the portfolios of the respective portfolios:
Health which got Rs 769.5 crore last year has been allocated Rs 822.49 crore by Sawant this year which amounts to an increase of over Rs 52 crore.
Similarly, the allocation for industries ministry has got hiked from Rs 93.92 crore to 123.3 crore. The Women and Child Development portfolio also held by Rane has got Rs 549.01 crore as against Rs 514.42 crore last year. Skill Development, again a portfolio held by Rane, got an increase allocation of Rs 135.46 crore as against last year’s 107 crore.
The Town and Country Planning Department under Kavlekar has been allocated Rs 62.78 crore while it was just Rs 27 crore last year. Agriculture got Rs 221.66 crore this year while it was Rs 191.32 crore the previous year. Kavlekar holds
Agriculture too.
Ajgaonkar’s prime portfolio of tourism got Rs 282.32 crore against last year’s Rs 198.44 crore. Sports also held by him got Rs 320.17 crore which is only marginally higher than last year’s Rs 314.62 crores. However the budget also has a separate Rs 250 crore allocation exclusively for the conduct of the National Games slated to be hosted here in November this year.
The power ministry, held by Cabral, has been allocated Rs 2752.14 crores, nearly Rs 371-odd crore higher than last year’s allocation.
