Lucknow, February 05: Contrary to Chief Minister Mayawati’s announcement in the state Assembly on January 29 that there would be no financial allocation for parks and memorials in the 2010-11 budget, provision of over Rs 700 crore has been made for memorials of Dr B R Ambedkar, Kanshiram and Ramabai Ambedkar in the budget that was presented by Finance Minister Lalji Verma in the House on Thursday.
The budget, which has an outlay of Rs 1,53,199 crore, does not impose any new taxes and includes an uncovered deficit of Rs 2,020 crore. However, the fiscal deficit is projected at Rs 22,742 crore, which is 4.4 per cent of the gross state domestic product.
Mayawati had made the announcement while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to Governor B L Joshi for his address to the legislature. The financial provisions made in the budget include the following:
* A provision of Rs 456 crore has been made for essential works in Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal to provide long-term stability to the structure under the “urban development” head of the budgetary grants for the Housing Department. * Under the same sub-head of the housing grants, a provision of Rs 224 crore has been made for the Manyawar Kanshiram Green (Eco) garden.* A provision of Rs 36 crore has been made for the development of Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan and additional works.* other works at various memorials, a token provision of Re 1 each has also been made in the grant of the Housing Department.
These memorials are Manyawar Kanshiram Memorial at Jail road, the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan, Dr Bhim Rao Samajik Parivartan Sthal and the development and beautification of the Smriti Upvan, earlier known as Kanshiramji Smriti Upvan.
Besides the budget, the Finance Minister also presented the second supplementary grants for the current fiscal 2009-10, totalling Rs 3,132 .56 crore.
In these, token provisions of Rs 1,000 has been made for various parks and memorials.
Using this token provision as a cover, the government can provide funds for parks and memorials by re-appropriation of grants within the current fiscal year.
The token provision of Rs 1,000 has been made for Dr Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal, for the corpus fund created for the security and maintenance of the parks and memorials and for the development and beautification of the Smriti Upvan.
In the schedule of new demand for 2010-11, a provision of Rs 372.44 crore has been made in the grants of the Housing Department for the comprehensive development of the state capital.
Finance Department sources said this allocation is for the parks and memorials which are being funded from the grants of the Housing Department.
—-Agencies