Pro-poor budget likely

Under Previous Financial Year, the Irrigation Department budget was as much as Rs 15500 crore out of which Rs 5500 crore has been spent so far on various projects. Bills connected to the department amounted to roughly Rs 4000 crore and that leaves a balance of amount unspent.

An indication has been given to the effect that this time for the next season there were chances to lower the figure for the irrigation it that is the signal to be taken from the Major Irrigation Minister P Sudharshan Reddy.

The Minister gave an inkling that his department may not attract as much as it did last

year in view of unspent budgeted amount sanctioned.

Asked about it Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy maintained that it was continuous process and much depended on how priorities were taken into account.

As of now, he maintained that welfare schemes and developmental activities would be prioritised.

Uppermost in the mind of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was Racha Banda which facilitated distribution of assets, pensions, house-sites, SHG Scheme, Pavala Vaddi among others for poor.

So Rachabanda tops the priority list as it envisaged faster distribution and attention to tackle the issues of the poor on the spot.

There was also another proposal to conduct it for the next three years non-stop to in order to get closer to the poor families who formed the main component of the electorate.

The Minister also indicated that Jalayagnam another important project deserved specific and special mention by the administration because of the role it played and which was an essential for effective implementation as far as the farmers' requirement was concerned.

Besides, the government was laying special emphasis on a budget that effected perfect implementation of the schemes related to the poor and a budget that took care of even non-plan expenditure.

The budget exercise currently occupied the time and attention of the rulers who have been involved in evolving a pro-poor budget as it was the first attempt by the Chief Minister.

According to sources the Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy has been 'briefed' sufficiently by all concerned particularly the high command for a 'strong' budget to avoid any miscalculations that might crop up as irritants later.