State punished for fiscal prudence, likely to suffer Rs 2,000 cr loss: CM

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 28

Chief Minister Harish Rawat today termed the Budget as disappointing and said Uttarakhand was likely to suffer a loss of Rs 2,000 crore annually due to the discontinuation of eight centrally-sponsored schemes.

“It seems the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has punished Uttarakhand for keeping its expenditure under check. While Bihar, Telangana and other states have been provided special packages, Uttarakhand has not found favour with the government. To top it, at least eight centrally-sponsored schemes have been discontinued. This will hit us hard,” said Rawat while addressing mediapersons here today.

The Chief Minister said the state had not even been included in the new heritage protection scheme though several important temples having distinct architecture had been ignored. “Our demands for Green Bonus, and waiver of service tax and income tax for two years in disaster affected areas have been ignored. No help has been announced in the Budget for the food processing industry, where we are still trying to find our feet,” he added.

Rawat said the Central government had pulled itself out of the Tourist Circuit Scheme, and discontinued assistance for police modernisation, and e-governance. It had failed to build an Himalayan Cultural Centre that was announced in the last Budget.

“Funds are required for modernisation of the police force in order to maintain law and order in the state. We had received funds for the purpose through the Finance Commission but now we have been asked to do police modernisation on own our own. For that matter, we require assistance from the Centre for fulfiling the mandate under e-governance but that is not possible now,” he added.

Harish Rawat said the Budget had also failed to release funds for the Ardh Kumbh Mela and the delay in fund allocation was affecting the preparedness for the mela.

The Chief Minister also lambasted the Centre for remaining silent on the issue of making the All India Institute of Medical Sciences a naturopathy hub, as was announced by a Union Cabinet minister during his visit to Dehradun.