The Chhattisgarh government would spend about Rs 3,000 crore in the coming financial year to implement the promises the ruling party had made before the state assembly polls.
The amount is about 15 per cent of the state’s total budget outlay of Rs 22,211 crore—leaving about 40 per cent for the development works after taking the 45 per cent non-plan expenditure into account.
The state government would have had required more than Rs 5,000 crore had it decided to implement all the vows the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made before the polls held in November. It had however decided to implement a part of the schemes worth Rs 2,929.50 crore in the first year after assuming office for a second term in December.
The schemes are related to bestowing sops to the farmers, and poor people with least concentration on the development works. There is no provision for the modern infrastructure development and metro rail service in the state to connect all major cities with the state capital as promised by the party in the election manifesto.
The prominent schemes include subsidized rice for the poor people, arrears for state government employees after implementing the sixth pay commission report, bonus on paddy, free power for farmers, and others. (See chart).
The economists in the state said that till the non-plan expenditure was well within the limits. “Though a big amount is going to be spent on meeting election promises, it is also for the welfare of the people,” they added.
The opposition Congress party said that the development work would be certainly affected in the coming financial year following government’s concentration on implementing some parts of the promises it had made before the elections that would benefit the individuals.
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“The establishment expenditure is constantly increasing in the state and the government needs to keep a tab,” state Congress general secretary Ramesh Varlyani said.
The state government would appoint a large number of boards and corporations heads soon after the Lok Sabha election that would increase the unnecessary financial.
The state's principal secretary (finance) D S Misra denied that spending more on implementing the election promises would affect the development works.
“The state government had already made a 13 per cent increase in plan expenditure in the outlay that would meet the demands for the fund,” he said.