Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu. ExpressThe fifth budget of the Manohar Lal Khattar government will be on the lines of the previous four budgets and will aim to touch every household in the state, haryana’s Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu Saturday said.
“Our main focus has been financial discipline, fiscal prudence and a budget for strengthening the economy and future of the state. We have maintained the growth rate despite the tight economic conditions. Our focus has been good governance and use of information technology. The use of technology has ensured good governance and transparency,” said Abhimanyu, ahead of Monday’s budget, during an interaction with media persons at his residence, here.
Abhimanyu said the State has been “conscious” to not violate the 3 per cent fiscal deficit threshold of the GDP for past four years despite “absorbing the huge impacts” of loans under the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) of around Rs 26,000 crore. He also said the debt-to-GDP ratio has remained around 22 per cent, which is below the normal limit. In absence of UDAY, he said the debt-to-GDP ratio would have around 17 per cent.
Stating that the previous governments had taken an approach of employing contractual employees, Abhimanyu said the BJP government has stressed on the proper and full recruitment instead of temporary appointments. “I have felt the team cannot play without all the players. We need the best talent and must go for proper full recruitment. Our budget has the capacity to absorb. The temporary thing is not going to work. We have employed eight times (more people) than (Bhupinder Singh) Hooda Sahab and 13 times more than (OP) Chautala Sahab on an average. We have worked on capacity building,” he said, adding that the state has witnessed the highest police recruitment in past four years and the government has realised it needs engineers to full capacity.
Abhimanyu said it was first time that the state saw simultaneous opening of 29 colleges, adding no one had envisioned that there will be medical college in each district. “Since beginning, we have mapped the healthcare and education sectors. There have been consistent plans in everything. The investment in irrigation has been of thousands of crores and there are roads in every village,” he added there has been no unplanned allocation of funds for works. Regarding the upcoming budget, he said it will be aimed at filling the gaps, which may have remained and reflect the prioritized sectors.
The minister further said it was their government, which begun the task of giving “identifications” to the families. Around 28 lakh families have been registered and we aim to cover 52 lakh families by March 31 . “No one has done it in the country. What does it mean? It is an innovative product that sees how each family has been touched; is any of them in government service, have they been to government hospitals and have they been benefited by the government schemes. We are digitally keeping a record. It is like Aadhaar. We want to identify any family, which is left to be supported or not touched by the government schemes,” he said
While highlighting the “benefits” of the mapping technology, Abhimanyu also said that the State revenue department has given the order for procurement of a high quality drone from Geological Survey of India and around 1.25-1.50-crore budget has been allocated for it. “Every inch of Haryana will be photographed vertically and horizontally. The photo quality will show every inch of a building and we will know whether it is authorised or not. There will be satellite coordinates for accuracy,” he said.
Abhimanyu also said the State has saved around Rs 3000 crore in various social security and educational scholarship schemes because of the Direct Benefit Transfer in past four years. This year, the state will save a further Rs 275 crore. He also said the State found around Rs 17,500 crore that had lapsed in bank accounts of different departments. “How were things being managed? I made the disclosure compulsory through legislative powers,” he said.
