Infrastructural development has witnessed a never-seen-before boom in the last four years in Assam under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma government. New roads, highway, flyovers and bridge projects have come up and many remain in the pipeline.
"Flyover politics" is likely to take centre stage with the upcoming Lok Sabha general elections this year and then polls in the state in two years' time. So could infrastructure take the limelight in the budget?
Here's a look at the previous budget.
Ahead of the beginning of the budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly on February 5, Finance Minister Ajanta Neog had said, "This will be my fourth budget. I am going to place the budget in the floor of the house on February 12. My first priority is to place a realistic budget. This is an important aspect that whenever place a budget the expenditure should be 100 percent."
"From my three years experience we have seen that our expenditure is upto sometimes it is near about 80 percent. This year we are going to try a new formula that if we place a realistic budget then the expenditure will be more," the Assam finance minister said.
She further said, "First, we have prepared a realistic budget. We are trying to make such a budget where every sector will be reflected. We will try to give benefits to the women, youths and as a whole we will try to make it as in place of expenditure also, increase of public expenditure, capital expenditure in case of infrastructure development."
Several key bills were tabled during the ongoing Budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly which began on February 5. On the very first day of the budget session the Assam Public Examination Bill (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment), 2024 was tabled in a bid to curb cheating and use of other unfair means during examinations.
The Assam cabinet meeting held ahead of the budget also approved the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024.
Reporting on the outcome of the cabinet meeting at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati, Assam Tourism Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah stated that the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has given its approval to the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024. This bill aims to offer support to individuals who have been subjected to harmful magical practices under the guise of treatment.
The Assam cabinet has given the green light to the creation of the Wildlife Safari and Rescue Centre in Namdang Reserved Forest, located in the Dibrugarh district. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 259 crore, aimed at offering rescue and rehabilitation services for the local wildlife.
To know more about the cabinet decisions, click here.
Assam Finance Minister Ajanta Neog arrived at the state assembly with this year's budget. Here are some pictures of her arrival.
It gives me immense pleasure to apprise this House that fulfilling our promise, under Category I, II and III (Phase-1) of the Assam Micro Finance Incentive and Relief Scheme, around 12 lakh borrowers have received assistance totalling Rs. 2,081 crore.
This year, we will extend support to those poor women borrowers under category-III, whose accounts have become non-performing assets as on 31st March 2021 and have an outstanding principal amount from Rs 25,001 up to Rs 50,000.
I allocate a sum of Rs 550 crore for this scheme during the Financial Year 2024-25.
Our Government boldly announced that we shall provide one lakh Government jobs to our boys and girls. We feel proud to state that we have successfully completed the recruitment of 94,506 youths till January 2024.
Further, advertisements for 35,910 posts have already been published taking the total jobs created to 1,30,416. You all agree that this is perhaps the first time such a record-level recruitment has taken place within the shortest possible time.
We are very keen to see the benefits of these jobs accrued to as many families as possible bringing social equity.
The Assam Budget for 2024-25 financial year is scheduled to be tabled today by Finance Minister Ajanta Neog in the Assam Assembly. Sources close to the developments inform that the budget is expected to be tabled at around 2 pm in the afternoon.
Ahead of that, the day's activities will begin with question and answer period at around 9:30 am. The home department will be faced with answering several crucial questions aimed at it, including those on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Foreigners' Tribunal, sources informed.
Today's activities of the Assam Assembly will be divided into two sessions - one from 9:30 am to 12 noon, and the other from 2 pm till the end of budget speech.
