Himachalis Should Actively Participate in Budget Framing

Anuj Kumar Acharya

(The writer is based at Nagan, Baijnath)

Himachal government has officially started preparation annual financial budget of the state for 2017-18. The Finance Department in order to draft budget held review meetings with important ministries and various rounds of discussions in January with MLAs related to their priorities in the budget. Besides this the department on its website also asked for budget related suggestion from citizens of the state. It is not for the first time that suggestions from public have been sought as it is yearly process whereby Finance Department invites suggestions from public regarding budget. Ironically people participation in this policy making has remained very poor in Himachal.

Only 74 persons have come forward to give their suggestions out of population of above 68 lakh. This is definitely not much encouraging. It would be better if more people come forward to present their views actively before the budget rather than ruing and crying for lack of opportunities after its presentation. Development is a continuous process and government in the last four years has provided impetus to developmental works in different works. But still there is always a scope for the improvement. The Finance Department will have to do their homework well to make the budget developmental and target oriented. Divya Himachal has tried to help government in framing the budget by presenting and publishing valuable suggestions from experts and writers of various fields through a series one month prior to the budget presentation.

The financial budget for 2016-17 was Rs. 32,593 crore. Increase of few crores is expected in this budget estimate for financial year 2017-18. It is my personal opinion that the government should stop spoon feeding people and policies with unnecessary subsidy burden like subsidised ration for APL families should be stopped. Besides this the list of BPL families should be reviewed properly and names of ineligible families should be excluded from the list. Money sanctioned under Indira Awas Yojana should be used for construction of roads in rural parts, as now everyone has pucca house in Himachal. There should be a proper mechanism to monitor that the benefit of policies percolates to the targeted group.

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