Chennai: Senior IAS officers at the secretariat are burning the midnight oil and are giving final touches to proposals and budgetary plans for departments. Required data for the budget have already been complied from department heads and special projects are given shape, as they require new financial allocations, said an informed official.
Paper work for the state budget is almost ready and now policy notes are revised with latest changes. Agriculture, education and health departments will see an increase in the annual allocation and transport department has also given proposals to buy new buses and spares. Funding to special implementation freebie schemes like free laptop, milch cow and green house will continue for the coming fiscal but there will not be any increase in funds to these popular projects, explained secretariat insiders.
Subsidised scooter scheme and infrastructure works in Coimbatore, Salem, Namakkal, Erode and parts of Chennai will benefit. Further the electricity board has also placed its demand requesting more allocation to install new transformers and replace electricity cables in rural pockets, sources said. For departments like environment, forest, prisons, dairy, rural development and information technology the ensuing budget will just be a routine annual affair, sources added. Budget presentation was initially planned during the third week of February, but with the state planning to celebrate the birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa on February 24, the budget presentation is likely to be in the first week of March, informed sources said.
