SHILLONG, March 10: The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) passed its annual budget of Rs 194.97 crore for the year 2021-23 on the final day of the Budget Session of the Council on Thursday.
It may be noted that the budget has a deficit of Rs 17,000.
In the budget, General Administration Department has been allocated Rs 31.52 crore, Law department Rs 56.98 lakh, Revenue and Finance department Rs 7.94 crore, Forest department Rs 8.94 crore, Administration of Justice and Judicial department Rs 5.28 crore, Legislative department Rs 7.59 crore, Education department Rs 40.03 lakh, Civil Works & Development department Rs 127.39 crore and Enforcement Scheme for Protection of Tribal Land & Interest Rs 5.31 crore.
Earlier in the day, participating in the general discussion on the budget, Leader of Opposition in the KHADC, PN Syiem pointed out that the trend has been that projection and anticipation in the budget do not match with the actual estimates.
“I understand we are not able to meet as per the budget provisions due to the shortage in the revenue collection. I would like to appeal to the Executive Committee (EC) that the projected amount in the budget should be fulfilled as far as possible,” he said.
According to Syiem, the Council has been unable to clear the pending dues or arrears of the staffs as it has been projected due to the shortage in the receipt. “To be able to make the budget more realistic we need to relook as per financial resources and revenue collection of the council. We have not been able to carry our priorities since there is shortfall on the total revenue which is expected to be collected,” the Leader of Opposition in the Council said. In response to this, Council’s Chief Executive Member (CEM), Titosstarwell Chyne, said that the present EC has not been able to fulfill its priorities highlighted in the budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had wanted to increase the budget proposal. But this could not be achieved due to the pandemic. We had wanted to allocate funds for development of sports and even increase the allocation for education,” Chyne said.
He said that the present EC has managed to pay the staff salaries during the pandemic, which is an achievement of sorts. “We are making efforts to clear the pending arrears of the MDCs,” the CEM said.