At Rs 16368 cr, allocation for Health dept sees increase by four times
KOLKATA: The Bengal government has increased allocation for the Health and Family Welfare department by over four times in the 2021-22 fiscal compared to that of the previous financial year in a bid to ensure safety of the people of Bengal during Covid pandemic.
Similarly, the allocation for Home and Hill Affairs department and Disaster Management department has also increased by multiple times. The budget for the Health department, which was Rs 4,608 crore in 2020-21, has been increased to Rs 16,368 crore to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic effectively. The proposal has been tabled to allocate Rs 11,939 crore to Home and Hill Affairs department in 2021-22 compared to that of Rs 1,299 crore in the last fiscal. The allocation to the disaster management department has also been proposed to increase to Rs 2,105 crore, which was Rs 215 crore in 2020-21.
Meanwhile, releasing a detailed report on state's expenditure in different sectors in the past 10 years since Trinamool Congress came to power, the Bengal government has stated that there was 10.11 times growth in the expenditure for the social service sector under state development schemes.
At the same time allocations to departments such as home and hill affairs and disaster management were increased over nine times compared to those in the previous year.
This comes when the total budget allocation has witnessed a growth of 3.64 times as it was Rs 84,803 crore in 2010-11 and now it has gone up to Rs 3.08 lakh crore in 2021-22 financial year.
The report of the Bengal government's Finance department states that the expenditure under the social service sector was Rs 6,846 crore on 2010-11 fiscal. It has gone up to Rs 69,206 crore in 2021-22 financial year. Similarly, the Agriculture and its allied services sector has increased by 10.5 times as it went up to Rs 31,827 crore in the current fiscal
which was Rs 3,029 crore in 2010-11.
At the same time, the state government has also ensured a 3.55 times growth in state tax collection in the past ten years.
