By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 18 May: The Uttarakhand Government will hold discussions with various representative groups from Garhwal region and invite their suggestions on the upcoming state budget for the Financial Year 2022-23, tomorrow, in Dehradun. In the meeting, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal will hold talks with stakeholders and obtain their views and suggestions for the upcoming budget. This meeting will be held tomorrow at the Chief Minister’s residence at 4 p.m. This is the second such meeting. One such meeting has been held already in Nainital, where representative groups from Kumaon region had been invited.
According to the Finance Minister, for the first time to prepare the budget for the financial year 2022-23, the state government is conducting a dialogue to ensure public participation in the budget exercise. With this, welfare schemes are likely to be included in the budget of Uttarakhand as per their wish.
Among those invited for tomorrow’s meeting include groups such as Hotel and Restaurant Association, Tour Operators’ Association, various organisations related to Agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors such as dairy, Milk Production Cooperative Federation Ltd., Industries Association, SIDCUL Association, Laghu Udyog Bharati Selaqui, Renewable Energy Association, Home Stay, and Chartered Accountants, etc., besides various trade and industry organisations.
Mayors of the Municipal Corporations under Garhwal Mandal, the Presidents of the District Panchayats will also be made a part of the dialogue. The Finance Minister claimed that special care would be taken in the budget to benefit the people living in accessible and inaccessible areas of the state. Officials involved in budgeting exercise will also be present at the meeting.
So far, many important suggestions have been received by the government like setting up of organic plant research centres at all district headquarters, making the policy of home stay more beneficial for the local people, making effective self-employment schemes. The government has also started receiving online suggestions. People have sent suggestions related to education, employment, migration, land law, investors and self-employment. People can still send their suggestions on uttarakhandbudget@gmail.com on their priorities regarding the budget for the current financial year. It may be recalled that due to elections, a full scale budget was not presented in the last assembly session and only a Vote on Accounts was passed. The budget session is likely to be held in July in Gairsain.
