Don’t expect extravaganza budget: Dy CM
Maharashtra government faces a revenue shortfall of Rs 1 lakh crore
The Maharashtra government faces a revenue shortfall of Rs 1 lakh crore. Therefore, there is a limited scope for new announcements or an extravaganza budget, announced Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar during his reply to the debate on the Governor BS Koshyari’s address in the state council. Pawar will present the Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s second budget on March 8.
Pawar, at the outset, told the house that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and economic downturn the state’s revenue has been heavily impacted and it has brought severe limitations on government expenditure. He, however, said that the government is committed to overall development of the state and no injustice will be meted out in any region in the fund allocation.
Pawar ’s statement is important, as the state government generated a revenue of Rs 1.88 lakh crore till Januar y end. Pawar, in his annual budget for 2020-21, had set a revenue target of Rs 3.47 lakh crore. In 2019-20, the state had collected revenue of Rs 2.37 lakh crore by end of January 2020, which was 75% of the target. Governor BS Koshyari, in his
address to both the houses of the state legislature on Monday, had said that the state’s revenue of Rs 1.88 lakh crore was 35 per cent less than the budgetary estimate and 21 perc ent lower than the collection in the same period in the previous year. He, however, noted that despite the shortfall in revenue, the government undertook massive humanitarian programmes.
Pawar said that the central government is yet to clear the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation dues of a whopping Rs 32,000 crore and hoped that it will be done at the earliest. Further, considering the pandemic and economic condition, the state government is urging the central government to increase its contribution in schemes.
"They are charging money means they are bound to provide better service,"
— Shyam Mistry, a beneficiary
In order to ramp up the ongoing phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Mumbai, as many as 13 private hospitals started inoculating beneficiaries from Thursday. Earlier this week the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had given permission to 29 private hospitals of the city for taking part in the drive. Hospitals likeNanavati, Bombay, Saifee, Lilavati, Global, Hinduja, and Nanavati were amongst the ones who started the drive from Thursday.
The BMC also said that nine more vaccination centres will become operational from Friday. These include the civic run - HBT Trauma Care hospital, Breach Candy Hospital, HN Reliance Hospital and Masina Hospital. Alongside these, five private centres - Lion Tarachand (Sion), Sapna Healthcare (Ghatkopar), Milat Diagnostics (Jogeshwari), Balaji Hospital (Malad), Meena's (Bhandup) and Dr. Bhatia's (Bhandup) will also start inoculation from Friday. These centres are affiliated under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
The drive was started at 9 am on Thursday and went on till late evening. Likewise, to the government facilities, these hospitals kept the option of onspot registration as well. Most of the beneficiaries who stepped in to get jabbed on Thursday said the entire process went smoothly and the waiting time was less. Beneficiaries also said, in order to ramp up the drive the civic body should consider roping in more private hospitals for vaccinating purpose.
"The fact they are charging money means they are bound to provide better ser vice," said Shyam Mistr y, another beneficiar y.
Dr. Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician of Bombay Hospital and in-charge of private hospitals said a total of 231 beneficiaries received the dose on Thursday.
"We have set up five booths to ensure there is no crowding, the operation went on smoothly on Thursday without any problem," Bhansali told FPJ.
Dr. V. Ravishankar - Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Lilavati hospital said on Thursday a total of 210 beneficiaries received the dose. "On the first day we only inoculated pre-registered beneficiaries, however from Friday we will start on spot registration as well," Ravishankar told FPJ. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of public health in BMC however said, there has been no discussion of roping in more private hospitals as of now.
He also said that each private hospital has been given a daily target of inoculating approximately 100 patients in each booth, which means if five booths are set up in a hospital then the total target will be 500 patients per day. "We will be studying the targets for few weeks and then will decide whether to rope in more private hospitals, however, the response on Thursday was good as in many hospitals the drive continued till late evening," Kakani told FPJ. He also mentioned the remaining private hospitals will start inoculating within the next two days.