Researcher picks holes in State budget

    24-Feb-2020
By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 23: The State Budget 2020-2021 leaves no hope for job seekers/youth of Manipur as more priority has been given to those areas with little scope of job creation, claimed social researcher Serto Tondana Kom today, further expressing desire for a thorough deliberation of the budget during the ongoing Assembly session.
Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club, Serto Tondana Kom conveyed that he appreciates the State Budget for increasing the revised estimates from the previous year, but alleged that the allocation seems to have been carried out without proper study by the officials concerned.
Pointing out that main priority was given to Community and Rural Development with 14.17 percent of the total share, Police with 12.22 percent, Finance Department with 11.97 percent and Education with 11.76 percent of the total share, the social researcher stated that presently, a lot of youth are unemployed and desperately seeking jobs but the aforementioned four Departments have little scope for job creation.
The officials have failed to give some more priority to Youth Affairs and Sports and Art & Culture, two important areas which often bring glory to the State at the National and International levels, apart from highlighting the beautiful and rich culture of the State as well as the country to other parts of the globe. These two also play important roles in ensuring preservation of the people's rich culture and identity, Serto asserted.
Lamenting that the revised estimate for YAS has been reduced from 0.48 percent to 0.37 percent while that of Art and Culture has been cut from 0.21 to 0.18 percent, he  claimed that due to such low allocation of budget to YAS, Manipur, which is known as a games and sports powerhouse, crashed in the ranks in the Khelo India event which concluded recently at Assam.
Serto Tondana Kom further lamented the budget also seems to give less concern to the Commerce and Industries sector as the revised estimate was reduced from 0.58 percent to 0.56 percent. This particular Department is related to the Start-Up schemes undertaken by the Government and with such low percentage, how will any of the scheme survive or thrive, he asked. The budget for Social Welfare Department was also reduced from 3.30 percent to 2.24 percent even though the Department is concerned with the welfare of the people, from birth till death. Social Welfare Department also monitors workings of Anganwadi centres apart from providing pension schemes for the elders, he explained, appealing to the legislators and the officials concerned to properly analyse and deliberate the budget in the ongoing Assembly session.