Hagrama Mohilary tables Rs 4,667 crore BTC budget for 2019-20

Hagrama Mohilary tables Rs 4,667 crore BTC budget for 2019-20

Our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR: BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary, who is also looking after the finance department of the council, placed the budget of 2019-20 amounting to Rs. 4667.76 crore under SOPD with a surplus of Rs. 42.52 crore during the first day of the BTC budget session on Tuesday.

The department of WPT&BC was given highest allocation to the tune of Rs. 147.82 crore followed by education at Rs. 85 crore, health and family welfare at Rs. 53.10 crore, forest and wildlife at Rs. 53 crore and PWD (Roads) at Rs. 48.15 crore while cinema and theatre, weight and measure, labour, employment and excise departments were allocated small amounts.

During the question hour, Member of Legislative Council Assembly (MCLA), Nirmal Kr. Brahma asked what was the present progress of forest land claimed by forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers’ (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, particularly the forest division in Chirang, and when would the land pattas be distributed. In his reply, the deputy chief of BTC, Kampa Borgoyary, who is the in-charge of the forest department, said that a total of 3,438 claimants under the division had already been given land pattas under implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006 based on recommendation of SDLC/DLC. He also said the distribution of pattas to claimants would continue. He further said the distribution of land pattas had already started in Kokrajhar district and more time was likely to be taken to verify the claimants.

MCLA Jatirindra Brahma said that the Secondary Education department of the Government of Assam had conceded a memorandum for provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institution (Amendment Act, 2018), calling for application within February 8 but the BTC authority had not implemented the Act. He questioned as to why the council had not taken interest and what measures had been taken. In reply, the in-charge of Education, Kampa Borgoyary said Inspector of Schools and DEEOs of BTC districts had already been instructed to submit scrutiny reports of the venture educational institutions as per guidelines of the Assam Education (Provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institution) Act, 2017 and amendment act, 2018 for onward submission to the Government of Assam and the same was also passed in BTC legislative assembly as BTC Education (Provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institution) Bill, 2017, but the matter had to be pursued with the Government of Assam.

Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition Rwngwra Narzary said the budget was just enhanced 10 pc. He said the budget of BTC was not matching population pattern and the council had to receive Rs.18,000 crore if the fund was based on population pattern. He also said it was not justified that the council has been being denied its due for over 32 lakh population.

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