Energy, education boost for Chandigarh in ₹6,513-crore budget
Union government hikes Chandigarh’s annual budget by 7% compared to last year; but allocation for development works slashed by 9%
Energy and education sectors received impetus in the ₹6,513-crore grant allocated for Chandigarh in the 2024-25 interim budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
At ₹6,513 crore, the budget is ₹426 crore (7%) more than the ₹6,087 crore allocated in 2023-24, although much lower than the ₹7,150 crore proposed by the UT administration for 2024-25.
Of the total allocation, the administration got ₹5,858.62 crore under the revenue head, which is ₹493.55 crore higher than last year’s ₹5,365 crore. This will go to salaries and other recurring expenses.
On the other hand, under the capital head, which covers development works and asset creation, the UT has been allocated ₹655 crore, a decrease of ₹67.03 crore (9%) from last fiscal’s ₹722 crore .
UT finance secretary Vijay N Zade said the budget showed a commitment to strengthening the developmental and economic framework of Chandigarh. “We were expecting a hike of around 7 %, which we got,” he said.
Power push
The bulk of the annual budget went to the energy and education sectors, with allocations of ₹1,093 crore and ₹1,031.98 crore, respectively.
The energy sector comprises provision for transmission and distribution of power, new and renewable sources of energy, promotion of model solar city programme and construction works of the power department.
The ₹1,031.98 crore allocated for education will cover modernisation and purchase of equipment, development of infrastructure for NCC, amenities/services; and graduate courses, modernisation and construction of a new polytechnic, government polytechnic for women and an industrial training institute.
Eye on health
This is followed by ₹875.54 crore for housing and urban development, which includes upgrade of a 50-bedded Community Health Centre to 250-bedded hospital and strengthening of 50-bedded poly clinic. UT will also work on strengthening rural subsidiary health centres, urban subsidiary health centres, health care schemes, AYUSH homoeopathy and Ayurveda.
A regional trauma centre, a mental health institute and a government rehabilitation institute for intellectual disabilities are also on the cards.
A total of ₹400.68 crore have been set aside for road and transport, including provision for purchase of new buses, replacement of condemned buses, upgrade of bus stand, computerisation of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking, construction of link road and purchase of video coach buses for inter-city transport.
Additionally, various other sectors will benefit from an allocation of ₹1,428.62 crore.
As part of welfare of women and children, UT will also establish a home for old and destitute people, protection centre for runaway couples and creches for children of working mothers.
UT also plans to offer subsidy on petrol/diesel and unemployment allowance to people with disability, apart from implementation of National Social Assistance Programme.
The urban development projects in the upcoming fiscal include the long-awaited pan city 24x7 water supply and a dam across Sukhna Lake.
