Education deparment gets the highest allocation of Rs 35,191 crore in Bihar budget

PATNA: The five works departments, along with the education department, have taken the hefty share of the budgetary allocations made for expenditure during the 2020-21 fiscal, as part of the state budget that deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi presented in the state assembly on Tuesday.
Later, outside the House, Modi said the Madhepura Medical College would start works related to academic session in a month, and the piped drinking water supply would be made available to each household by the end of March this year. “Bihar would become the first state in the country, where every household would have piped drinking water supply,” Modi added.
Otherwise, the budgetary allotment for the education department has been the highest at Rs35,191 crore among all the departments, hogging 16.62% share of the estimated state budget worth Rs2.11 lakh crore for the 2020-21 fiscal. Of the sum allocated for the education department, Rs21,264 crore would utilized as scheme or plan expenditure.
The government would also be spending a no mean sum on the payment of interest, pension and repayment of loan amounts during the 2020-21 fiscal. Separately, the payment of pension amount accounts for Rs20,468 crore, interest payment for Rs12,924 crore and repayment of loans Rs7,035 crore.
However, the four major works departments together — rural development department, road construction, rural works and building construction — would be spending Rs38,796 crore during 2020-21, including Rs25,272 crore on various projects and schemes.
Separately, the budgetary allocation for rural development department is Rs15,955 crore, including Rs15,529 crore for scheme expenditure, while Rs10,638 crore has been earmarked for the rural works department, including Rs9,619 crore for scheme expenditure.
The share of the road construction department is Rs6,706 crore, including Rs5,581 crore to be spent on various projects. Similarly, the allocation for the building construction department is Rs5,395 crore, including Rs4,543 crore to be spent on the projects.
Other than them, the other major allocations have been made for health (Rs10,937 crore), panchayati raj (Rs10,651 crore), energy (Rs5,560 crore) and public health engineering department (Rs5,856 crore), while the allotment for the social welfare department that handles social security schemes is Rs7,994 crore.
While the government would be spending Rs24,500 crore on implementing the ambitious Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali campaign over the five years, the budgetary allotment is Rs500 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal. Further, the urban development and housing department would be spending another chunk of Rs10 crore on the related schemes during the same period.