Itanagar
Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein who also holds Finance portfolio on Monday proposed a Rs 546 crore deficit budget with a two per cent shortfall (estimated) from a total outlay of Rs19,261 crore for the financial year 2018-19.
Terming it a pragmatic pro-poor, pro-farmer budget, the Minister hasput its utmost thrust on seven key areas were education, skill development, health, governance reforms, IT, infrastructure, social security and agriculture and allied sectors.
The budget estimates has given a huge focus on the agrarian economy and empowerment of farmers. A large number of schemes have been launched to revitalize the agriculture and allied sectors, with a focus on agricultural entrepreneurship, farm credit, agricultural extension, marketing and providing quality planting material, he said.
In order to augment the resources available for financing new interventions in health and education sector, a 10% cess on liquor has been imposed from April 1, 2018.
In Education, a huge increase in the department’s outlay and a series of measures have been announced which were focussed more on improvement of quality of teaching than infrastructure creation.
Regular talent hunts, focussed mentoring by teachers, smart class room programmes were some of the key features of this sector. A sum of Rs15 crore has been earmarked for creation of Arunachal Pradesh University at Pasighat, he informed.
