Budget focuses on Agro, Edu & Infra
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 26 March 2010 21:04 IST
Chief minister Digambar Kamat has said the thrust areas of his budget this year are education, agriculture and infrastructure. He presented the budget in the Assembly yesterday.
The fund allocation for major sector, as stated in the 61-page budget document, is as follows:
EDUCATION
• Rs 15 crore for computer Labs in schools with 10 PCs, 2 printers, UPS, webcam & Internet
• Cyber Age Scheme scrapped
• Rs 100 lakh to appoint counsellors to deal with stress related to education
• Lab Assistant in every school
• More divisions for vocational stream & reasonable pay for contract teachers
• Income limit for Goa Scholar Scheme raised to Rs 6 lakh & loan of Rs 15 lakh
• Rs 100 lakh to set up Goa Institute for Administrative Careers
• New Govt College in Margao, with more focus on ST students
AGRICULTURE
• Agriculture allocation doubled, from Rs 18.62 crore to Rs 46.22 crore
• Provision of Rs 10 crore, to give one-time grant of Rs 50,000 for 2 hectares to till agricultural land
• Contract Farming Act to encourage contract farming & bringing 700 hectares under cultivation
• Support price for coconut increased to Rs 5 and limit increased to 50,000 coconuts
• 70 to 90 per cent subsidy for solar power battery fencing, maximum Rs 2 lakh to individuals and Rs 3 lakh to group of farmers
• 90% subsidy for drip irrigation on sugarcane
INFRASTUCTURE
• Rs 50 crore for Infrastructure Development Fund to implement PPP projects
• Critical Area Space Plan for Sinquerim-Calangute-Baga beach
• Logistic hubs at Sancoale & Dharbandora on PPP mode
• Mineral Development Fund of Rs 500 crore from minding industry in 5 years for infrastructural development in mining area
• Rs 50 crore to acquire land for Mopa air port
• Rs 10 crore for renovating Old Goa Sadan, Delhi
• Rs 300 lakh for modern fire fighting equipment
• Dona Paula Convention Centre to be shifted to hinterland on PPP mode
• Bridges: Gaundalim-Cumbarjua, Sanguem parallel, Calvim-Aldona & Savoi Verem-Tixem
• Feasibility study of Chorao & Divar bridges from Ribandar
• Rs 100 lakh to upgrade GIM, Ayurved & Homeopathy colleges
INDUSTRIES
• Interest rebate on CRMY loans for women hiked from 3 to 5%
• Rs 100 lakh to relocate scrapyards and act to regulate them
• Task Force to indentify unutilised or underutilised industrial plots
• Releasing SEZ land
• 2000 Goan youth to be engaged as Industrial Security
• Goa Venture Capital Fund for Goan entrepreneurs
• Task Force to prepare roadmap for food processing industry
• Bio Tech policy to be reviewed
• Goa IT Knowledge centre at Verna
• Rs 50 lakh to develop Shilprgram within & outside Goa
• One time grant to Self Help Groups, max up to Rs 50,000
ART & CULTURE
• One time grant of Rs 1 lakh to 100-year old libraries
• Rs 30 lakh to Gomant Vidya Niketan, Margao to upgrade infrastructure
• Rs 5 lakh each to Vivekanand Society, Panaji & Janata Vachanalaya, Vasco
• Rs 25 lakh for Sambhavami Yuge Yuge
• Scheme to assist private museums
TOURISM
• Rs 500 lakh to engage 1000 Goan youth in Advanced Beach Safety Management System on PPP mode
• Rs 100 lakh for beach safety facilities
• Ferry cruise between Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Karwar etc on PPP mode
• Tourism entertainment facilities on PPP mode
LAND
• Estate Officer to keep check on Govt land
SOCIAL WELFARE
• Rs 15 crore for Swarnajayanti Arogya Bima for entire resident population of Goa
• Rs 200 lakh to repair religious places
• Rs 500 lakh for distressed families with Rs 2 lakh for death, Rs 1.5 lakh for permanent disability & Rs 1 lakh for partial disability of single bread-earner
• Rs 17.38 crore for Directorate of Tribal Welfare
• Journalists' pension hiked from Rs 2000 to Rs 4000
• Well-equipped media facilitation centres at taluka headquarters
GOLDEN JUBILEE INITIATIVES
• Formation of 12th Dharbandora taluka by reorganising talukas of Sanguem, Sattari, Ponda & Quepem
• Golden Jubilee Development Council under Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, to prepare vision document till 2050
• Team of professionals to frame Housing & Habitat Policy
• IT Task Force under chairmanship of Vijay Bhatkar, along with Ashank Desai & Prof Vithal Sukhatankar
• Swarnmahotsavi Area Development Fund of Rs 50 lakh each to all 40 MLAs
How can the democratic system be manipulated and the public fooled, to carry on unhindered, activities like mining, which clearly spells out doom for this beautiful State and cause misery to lakhs, just for the benefit of a few privileged?
500 crores of infrastructure is required to plunder the earth in 5 years - before the people wake up ....
Vedanta wants to extract 400% more iron ore in Goa than last year. They have kept 70,000 crores for investment in mining in India this year alone!
Please visit the mines in Sanguem, Quepem, Bicholim and Sattari talukas to realize what is happening !!!
laukik, i think that 500 crore will come from mineral foundation (from mining Industry), not from the government treasury.
"Mineral Development Fund of Rs 500 crore from mining industry in 5 years for infrastructural development in mining area"
This is a mamoth proportion of investment into an industry that citizens are opposing tooth and nail. Will the government explain this skewed allotment w.r.t. education, agriculture and health?
...Now it is BETTER to become an MLA because one will get 50 Lakh Indian Rupees. Good Business.....25 Lakh for the work expense and remaining 25 Lakh in the BIG POCKET. It is better to come down to Goa and join POLITICS because politicians are getting more and more OPPORTUNITIES to STEAL and CORRUPT the Treasury Box of Goa?......Is there any BENEFIT for NRE/NRI of GOAN Origin??? There was...there is and there will be NOBODY to think SERIOUSLY about this Issue because it mostly affects only ONE GOAN COMMUNITY ONLY... and no need to tell anybody in detail because everybody has understood what i mean? My dear Govt. of Goa, don't worry about us...... we will always sweat to send and contribute to the Growth of Revenues Figure of Goa.... ADEUS.
It is a tragedy to see the huge mining pits as well as huge mountains of the overburden left unattended everywhere after the ore is mined, in this small State! Why does the common man have to suffer all the misery caused by the mining operations just for the benefit of a few?