Jammu
The fourth consecutive budget that is being presented to the assembly at 12 noon today is witnessing a massive outreach using the existing communication systems, insiders in the finance ministry said. It is being telecast live and will also be tweeted from the Finance Minister’s official twitter handle.
Interestingly, J&K is the first Indian state that is presenting the budget for 2018-19 in the first half of the last quarter of the current fiscal. The central budget is taking place a month later.
“This will be the first budget that we expect will reach so many people at the same time,” a finance ministry official said. “It is being broadcast live on DD, Take 1, and two of its affiliates, Gulistan TV, Radio Mirchi and Radio Kashmir.” He said the information will be dished out through twitter in tits and bits as well. Some of them will have live streaming on their websites too.
The newspapers across the state are expected to publish special pull-outs to take the budget speech to people who may miss the broadcast.
The entire finance ministry was working for the whole night in the secretariat. It was the Urdu version of the budget speech that readied slightly later.
Contents of the budget will be known only after it is presented to the House but sources said that it has focused on Panchayat Raj.
“There are various things that have happened for the first time,” one official said. “We have done the accounting of the budget on the sectoral basis in addition to the routine grants.” This, he said, will get clear information about what is happening in the economy of the state. However, the weight of the documents will be slightly more than the last year because of the additional documents which are being tabled. “That is why, we are tabling the entire documents in a bag,” the official said.
“Even the printing of the budget has been done differently,” he said. “This year the focus is on the handicrafts and it will be visible in all the documents.” All the printing has been done by Ranbir Press, the state government’s old printing facility in the region.
