The Hindu : Front Page : Budget size may come down

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Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009
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Budget size may come down

Government wants to adopt a cautious approach to avoid problems in future
Ministers from coastal Andhra sceptical about cooperative farming’s success

HYDERABAD: The State government is likely to cut down the allocations to departments, except those dealing with welfare and irrigation, in the budget to be presented in the Assembly on July 24. The State set a record of sorts last year when it presented a budget of little over Rs. 1 lakh crore with a plan expenditure of over Rs. 43,000 crore.

However, revenues from land auctions and Registrations & Stamps department fell much short of the anticipated targets prompting the government to prune its expenditure. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is learnt to have dropped enough hints to this effect during a meeting of the Council of Ministers here on Tuesday when he asked the departments to prioritise their needs for rationalising expenditure.

Dr. Reddy is learnt to have told his Cabinet colleagues that the global financial crisis had little impact on the State’s economy so far, but the government wanted to adopt a cautious approach to avoid problems in future. There would be no cut in the budgetary allocation to projects being taken up under the flagship programme, Jalayagnam, as also in the release of matching grants for various Centrally-sponsored programmes.

The discussion, it is learnt, was centred on the introduction of cooperative farming with several Ministers, particularly those from coastal Andhra region, expressing apprehensions about its success. Dr. Reddy, however, is said to have made it clear that the scheme, aimed at improving yield and ensuring assured income for farmers, was not mandatory and the government had no intentions to force it on farmers.

“There are no targets fixed for formation of societies. It will be taken up as an experiment and only those who are willing to form cooperatives will be involved in it,” he said, asking Ministers to educate farmers and remove apprehensions about the scheme.

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