BHOPAL: During the presentation on the state budget for the year 2017-18 at the cabinet meeting here on Tuesday, the minister for woman and child development Archana Chitnis and industries minister Rajendra Shukla took exception to the low allocations for their departments. These ministers said that their departments were quite important for the state and hence they should be allocated more funds.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asked them to discuss the matter with additional chief secretary, finance, AP Shrivastava.
Chouhan said if ministers can justify to the ACS as to why their departments deserve more fund, their budget allocation would be increased.
Chouhan showed concern over low budgetary allocation to the department of public relations (DPR). He wanted to know why the allocation for DPR had been curtailed. He said the programmes run by the government need to be publicised and that is why, budget allocation to DPR should be increased. It was decided, after Chouhan’s intervention, to increase budget allocation to DPR.
The state government is going to present a budget of around Rs 1.70 lakh crore this year. Finance minister Jayant Mallaiya said discussion on budget took place in the cabinet.
He said GST would not have any major effect on the state budget. Mallaiya said budget had been prepared on the basis of the revenue projections.
