Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 15: Financial Commissioner Finance Department, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired various meetings to discuss budget proposals for the remaining part of the financial year 2019-2020 (November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020) with the Administrative Secretaries of different departments.
The budget for the current financial year has to be segregated in two parts i.e seven months from April 1, 2019 to October 30, 2019 as State of J&K and for five months from October 31, 2019 to March 31, 2020 as Union Territory of J&K and Ladakh. This way, the two Union Territories will have their own budgets.
As a part of this exercise the Financial Commissioner Finance held budget discussions with more than half a dozen departments including General Administration Department (GAD), Science & Technology Department, Hospitality Protocol and Toshkhana Department, Culture Department, Higher Education Department, Industries & Commerce Department, Tourism Department and Youth Services & Technical Education Department. The budget discussions started from October 14 (Monday).
The Financial Commissioner called upon the departments to focus on outcomes. He further said that every program should be started with proper planning and no money should go waste.
On the occasion, threadbare discussions were held on the functioning of these departments and their future requirements for the remaining financial year. The concerned Administrative Secretaries put forth the budget proposals along with their view points on the future action plans with regard to their targets, revenue realizations and up-gradation of infrastructure and other facilities. They also briefed the Financial Commissioner about the status of various on-going projects in their respective departments.
Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce and Tourism; Commissioner Secretary Science & Technology; Vice Chancellors from various Universities; Secretary GAD; Secretary Culture & Technical Education; Secretary Higher Education; Secretary Youth Services & Sports; Director General Budget; Secretary Sports Council; Director General Sports; officials of Finance department and other concerned attended the meetings. Besides, various departments from Jammu attended the meeting through video conferencing.