Shot in arm for fundstarved varsities
STEPS TAKEN FOR SOCIAL SECTOR, ESPECIALLY HEALTH AND EDUCATION; TEXT BOOKS FOR CLASSES 1 TO 12 TO BE GIVEN FREE
CHANDIGARH: Reeling under fund crunch itself, the Punjab government on Saturday announced hike in grants to financially overburdened state universities, which are finding it difficult to even meet their routine expenses.
Finance minister Manpreet Badal in his budget speech also announced an additional onetime grant of ₹50 crore to Punjabi University, Patiala, besides at least 6% hike in annual grant of ₹88 crore.
The additional grant has come after almost a decade, a period during which the university has slipped into a financial mess.
With a fiscal deficit of ₹228 crore, the university had to borrow ₹90 crore from banks to pay salaries.
Meanwhile, the government has enhanced the total grant-inaid to Panjab University, Chandigarh, from ₹33 crore to ₹42.6 crore. This includes an additional grant of ₹6 crore to help the varsity meet its past deficit. ₹8 crore have been proposed for its constituent colleges.
The budget also proposes to increase the grant to other state universities — Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Ludhiana’s Punjab Agricultural University and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University; Guru Ravidas Ayurved University, Hoshiarpur; and Rajiv Gandhi Law University, Patiala — by at least 6%.
Meanwhile, an initial allocation of ₹2 crore each has been made for Maharaja Agrasen Chair and Maharana Pratap Chair at Punjabi University. The total cost is ₹7 crore each.
FREE TEXTBOOKS, WI-FI IN SCHOOLS
With an aim to increase school enrolment, Manpreet proposes to provide all textbooks for free from Classes 1 to 12. The move will cost the exchequer ₹49 crore.
Manpreet also announced free Wi-Fi services in all government schools in association with private partners. Under the same facility, 23 government colleges have already been covered in the state. The remaining 25 will also get free Wi-Fi by July 2018, said the minister.
Meanwhile, ₹50 crore have been earmarked to convert one school in each education block into a smart one with state-ofthe-art facilities.
Besides constructing separate toilets for girls in all government schools, the government will also spend ₹10 crore on providing free sanitary napkins to all girl students in Classes 6-12. Meanwhile, ₹9 crore have been allocated for installing water purifiers in 1,500 schools and ₹21 crore for installing green boards.
13% BOOST TO HEALTH SECTOR
With 13% increase in the plan outlay as compared to previous fiscal, the budget has proposed ₹4,015 crore for primary and secondary health care services in 2018-19.
National Health Mission (NHM) will get a boost of ₹776 crores, 18% higher than the last year’s allocation. The government will also set up new hospitals at Doraha in Ludhiana and Ghanaur in Patiala and upgrade the existing Bathinda Civil Hospital.
To provide immediate care to
accident victims, the budget proposes to build Trauma Centres on important highways, for which ₹20 crore have been earmarked. There is also a plan to strengthen 2,950 sub-centres as Health and Wellness Centres.
A ₹39-crore state cancer institute at Amritsar and ₹45-crore tertiary cancer care centre at Fazilka will also be constructed. Financial provision of ₹25 crore has been made for the Cancer and Drug De-addicition Treatment Infrastructure Board (CADA) to support augmentation of cancer diagnostic and treatment infrastructure and implementation of new strategies for drug de-addiction.
While a medical college will also come up in Mohali this year, ₹73 crore will be spent on upgrading Government Medical Colleges at Patiala and Amritsar. Health Minister Brahm Mohindra claims this is the biggest ever budget allocation for the health sector in Punjab.
SOMETHING FOR ALL
On increase in pensions, one of the biggest pre-poll promises of the Congress, the finance minister says in the budget document: “We have enhanced monthly pension to ₹750 crore. I hope that as our resource position strengthens we will be able to raise it further.”
A new scheme — Mahila Shakti Kendra — has been approved in the budget for implementation up to 2019-20. The scheme will provide an interface for rural women to approach the government for availing their entitlements and for empowering them through awareness generation, training and capacity building.
For empowering backward classes, the budget mentions Punjab Cabinet decisions, including increase in quota of backward classes in educational institutions from 5-10% and increase in the annual family income limit from ₹6 lakh to ₹8 lakh.
Also, ₹860 crore have been allocated for post-matric scholarship scheme, up from ₹620 crore last year.