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State Budget totally ignored urban growth: APUCF
The state budget which was introduced in the Assembly on Wednesday by and large ignored the development of the urban areas which were largely affected by the Covid-19, stated the Andhra Pradesh Urban Citizens Federation.
Vijayawada: The state budget which was introduced in the Assembly on Wednesday by and large ignored the development of the urban areas which were largely affected by the Covid-19, stated the Andhra Pradesh Urban Citizens Federation.
The State convener of the Federation Ch Babu Rao said in a statement here on Thursday that it was highly deplorable that there was cut up to 27 per cent in revised budget for 2019-20 and 88 per cent cut in the capital expenditure.
Though the budget allocated more funds for the urban development in the budget, its implementation is doubtful because 25 per cent of the budget goes to the salaries, he said. "The juggling of numbers in the budget mostly relied upon the loans and the grants from the Centre," he pointed out.
Moreover, the allocation of Rs 3,000 crore for urban housing is not enough even for the completion of the houses under construction. Strangely, the government had not allocated funds for the house sites though it had announced houses and house sites to 30 lakh people throughout the state.
There was meagre allocation for the urban development except Rs 1275 crore in the name of grants from the Finance Commission for the 110 municipalities and the municipal corporations.
It is highly ridiculous to allocate Rs 689 crore for the new capital city without allocating a single rupee for the construction of the existing capital city at Amaravati.
Referring to the government cantees, Babu Rao said that there was no allocation for the revival of the government canteens to feed the poor. There was also no allocation of funds for providing infrastructure facilities in the SC and ST areas and also no allocation of funds to the urban development authorities. Only Rs 3 crore was allocated for the Metro transport system.
Babu Rao demanded increased allocation of funds to the municipalities and the municipal corporation which were facing financial crisis. He also demanded allocation of more funds for public health and health centres in urban areas which were affected by the Covid-19.
He opined that the government should concentrate on providing infrastructure facilities in the urban areas by making necessary changes in the budget.
