An Assembly worker carries laptops that were given to the MLAs. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, March 29: Two days from the end of the financial year, the Assembly today passed the third supplementary budget for Rs 149.99 crore presented by the state government.

While Rs 63 crore figured under the ?Plan? head, Rs 86 crore was under the ?Non-Plan? head. The entire amount has already been drawn from the contingency fund and the Assembly?s post-facto approval was obtained by the government with 40 votes for it and 38 against, with one abstention.

The Assembly also approved by voice vote the vote-on-account for the next three months in the absence of a regular budget, which will be placed in the next session of the Assembly ?in June or July?. The third supplementary budget indicates poor planning, excess or even reckless expenditure besides poor accounting. But not too many inconvenient questions were asked in the House and not too many answers were forthcoming from the government.

There was no explanation why an additional Rs 9 crore was required, for example, to supply medicines to government hospitals and medical colleges during the year; or why Rs 18 lakh was drawn to inform and educate traders about VAT though the state government is not ready to implement the tax this year.

In the plan head, Rs 16.56 crore was shown as state?s contribution to the Indira Awas Yojana and Rs 36.28 crore as the state?s contribution for the NREP. There was again no explanation why this was not included in the original budget placed in March last year. Similarly, no explanation was available why Rs 5.66 crore was being sought in the third supplementary to provide ambulances to all government hospitals.

The chief minister, by way of explanation, merely claimed that the Assembly elections required Rs 9.31 crore to be spent on home guards and Rs 8.45 crore on the police. BJP member Saryu Rai sought to justify the supplementary demands by claiming that central grants were not released on time. The chief minister claimed that since the additional funds, Rs 1,303.92 crore in all the three supplementaries, came from central aid and transfer of funds, there would be no impact on the original budget estimates or to the contingency funds.

Earlier in the day, Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari asked the government to act on the recommendations in the V.D. Ram report on the coal mafia. ?Let us not send a message that the House is defending an officer. I request the government to read the report and take action. If there are specific charges against any official, action should be taken,? he told agitated treasury bench members who wanted the issue either dropped or referred to the assurance committee of the House.