Allocations for key sectors below all-India average apart from Education, Agriculture & Energy
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 12
Nagaland's allocation for key sectors is lower than the average budget allocation for those sectors across all states in India, except in police, education, agriculture, and energy, highlighted a recent report.
The data were based on the budget estimates of 2023-24 for 31 states and Union Territories (UTs), informed by the 'State of State Finances' report released by the PRS Legislative Research on November 9.
Among the 13 key sectoral allocations analysed in the report, Nagaland had the highest allocation among the states on police department at 11.3%, nearly three times the average outlay of all states at 4.2%.
The second sector with an allocation higher than the national average was education at 16.1% of the total budget estimates of 2023-24. The average of all states in education was 14.7%.
The agriculture sector at 6.6% also had a higher outlay than the 5.9% of all states.
It must be noted here that, as per the 2023-24 Budget documents, School Education was the department with the highest employment in Nagaland at 39,839, comprising 22,902 under CPS/CSS, etc., and 16,937 under State (non-development).
Expenditure on salaries and allowances, as per the budget estimates for 2023-24 for the sector, was Rs 1,737.88 crore. Further, there were 1,421 employees in the higher education department, with expenditure estimated at Rs 132.21 crore.
At 25,833, the civil police was the second-highest employer with wage bills estimated at Rs 1,776.92 crore.
Meanwhile, as per the PRS report, Nagaland's budget outlay for the energy sector was equal to the average of all states at 4.7%.
However, the allocation was lower in all other key sectors, such as Health, Rural Development, Roads and Bridges, Social Welfare and Nutrition, Urban Development, Water Supply & Sanitation, Irrigation & Flood Control, Housing, and Welfare of SC, ST, OBC & Minorities (see table).
Allocations for some sectors were among the lowest in India and prominent among them were Social Welfare and Nutrition at just 2.9% against the national average of 6.6%.
Nagaland also allocates a mere 1.1% of the total budget outlay to Water Supply & Sanitation and 1.3% for Urban Development. The outlay for Housing was also just 0.7%.
As per the report, the share of expenditure on a particular sector denotes the share of that sector in the state's budget and comprises both revenue expenditure and the capital outlay in that sector.
