Ranchi, March 3: The state government today sought another Rs 377 crore through third supplementary budget, which includes Rs 9.67 crore, to purchase anti-bird flu medicines, renovate veterinary hospitals and pay salary in animal husbandry department.

It sought Rs 25 crore to acquire land in Dhanbad for the extension of Indian School of Mines. The food and civil supplies department sought Rs 3.02 crore to distribute iodised salt among BPL families.

Besides, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 3 crore were sought, respectively, to put in place the light and sound system at army cantonment in Dipatoli and lay astroturf for National Games in Ranchi. Adding to non-plan expenditure, a huge fund was demanded to meet the salary of departments, including forest, HRD, home, welfare, and art & culture.

The explanation the finance department gave was that the said expenditure was either not provided or was inadequate in the original budget.

The comptroller & auditor general had rapped the government in its last report for unnecessarily resorting to seeking funds through supplementary budgets even as huge funds, earmarked in the original budget, lapsed.

BJP MLA Sarayu Roy said that the government violated the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

“The Act makes it mandatory for the government to cut the size of the original budget by the amount sought through supplementary budget. But the state government has not made any such provisions in the supplementary budget,” he said.

The 2007-08 annual budget size was pegged at Rs 16,400 crore, 46 per cent (Rs 6,676 crore) of which was meant for development i.e. plan head and 54 per cent (Rs 8,861 crore) for salary i.e. non-plan expenditure. Finance minister Stephen Marandi said the third supplementary budget would not create any burden on the state exchequer. “We will meet the demand (Rs 144 crore for non-plan expenditure) from the funds that departments are to surrender after they failed to utilise them,” he said.

Marandi said the supplementary budget of Rs 377 crore included Rs 56 crore the state got as grants from the Centre. A major share of funds were to meet salary expenses incurred due to addition of manpower in the home department and clear outstanding dues to government staff before 2000, he added.

Chart

1.       Annual budget Rs 16,400cr

2.       First supplementary budget Rs 442cr

3.       Second supplementary budget Rs 1472.87cr

4.       Third supplementary budget Rs 377cr