Goa CM to present budget for FY 2020-21 today

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds finance portfolio, will present his maiden budget in the state assembly today.

According to the Chief Minister the budget would be focused on rural development.

'Job creation cannot be focus of a budget... When we say sustainable development, it is all inclusive. We will focus on rural development,' he had said recently.

The Chief Minister had launched a website on January 28, 2020, inviting people to send their suggestions and expectations from the budget. Around 400 suggestions were received by the people for the budget.

According to Dr Sawant, the highest number of suggestions were for education sector, followed by administration, governance, transport and health.

However, opposition has claimed that government had failed to deliver promises made in the last budget and demanded that actual budget be presented not notional figures.

Addressing a press conference at State Secretariat after chairing the budget committee meeting at Assembly complex at Porvorim, near the city, Goa Forwar Party (GFP) MLA Vijay Sardesai said Chief Minister should present actual budget and should not present notional figures.

He claimed that only 31.5 per cent of the last budget was utilised last year, which he said was sugar coating of numbers.

The Congress has demanded that government should come out with Action Taken Report (ATR) for financial year 2019-20.

'To promote tourism, the Chief Minister had announced to outsource roadside centres which would provide facilities such as changing rooms, toilets and dining places. He must tell people how many such toilets, changing rooms and dining places his government had undertaken during last year. He had announced to set up an institution on the lines of NITI Aayog which will advise the government on policy-making with sustainable developmental goals, he needs to explain the progress on this front,' Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar said.a