Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday informed that to address the shortfall of teachers, which is impacted by the absenteeism of teachers, a ‘Teacher Attendance Monitoring App’ will be introduced during the current year to check the absenteeism of teachers and that the department of School Education (DoSE) will also undertake a rationalization exercise very soon.
The leader of the house (LoH) said this while delivering his concluding remarks on the Budget for the year 2023-24 during the Assembly Session at Nagaland Legislative Assembly, Kohima.
He pointed out that the ongoing Lighthouse Project, funded by World Bank under DoSE is mainly for governance and management of School ecosystems with no scope for appointment of teachers under the scheme.
On change of nomenclature from Advisor to Minister of State
Meanwhile, on the suggestion made by Naga People’s Front (NPF) leader Kuzholuzo Nienu to amend or legislate a law for the state wherein the nomenclature of Advisor is changed to Minister of state (MoS), Rio said, “The suggestion of amending laws to re-designate Advisors as ‘Ministers of State’ will have to be examined from a legal perspective to ascertain whether such a move is possible. We have to remember that there is the issue of ’Office of Profit’ that may invite disqualification if we are not careful”.
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Regarding completion of important projects, the LoH informed that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Rs. 177 crore was prepared, out of which Rs. 20 crore has already been provided under Special Assistance during 2022-23 to maintain and keep functional the Multi Disciplinary Sports Complex (MDSC) at Dimapur and said that the state will consider more allocation of funds depending on the work.
Two multi-level parking lot in Kohima ready for inauguration
He also informed that an amount of Rs. 30 crore has been provided under Special Assistance during 2022-23 to facilitate the timely completion of the New High Court building and announced that the completion of 2 Multi Level Parking lot under Kohima Smart City Development Limited is ready for inauguration.
Further, Rio noted that despite the economic damage caused by COVID-19, the state finances have shown substantive improvement as compared to the last years.
The budget of 2022-23 showed a positive balance of Rs. 150.30 crore in the Current Account Transaction. He maintained that even in the current budget for the year 2023-24, there is a positive balance of Rs. 60 crore in the Current Account Transactions and the minus balance of Rs. 40 crore is only due to the high withdrawals in GPF.
This amount is added to the Accumulated Deficit to arrive at the figure of Rs. 1374.17 crore Closing Deficit (CD). When we compare this with the estimated closing deficit of Rs. 2212.74 crore indicated in the Budget of 2022-23, there is a huge reduction in the deficit by Rs. 878.57 crore, he said.
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Rio informed that the improvement was made possible on account of the huge release of Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) backlog as well as CD. In view of improved resources, the state government was able to release the CSS backlog of Rs. 728 crore during July 2022, and in the course of the year, an amount of Rs. 150 crore funds were kept in CD impacting the reduction in liabilities.
CM clarifies GST issue, reduction of Budget 2023-24
Meanwhile, Rio clarifying the GST issue raised by the house said that Section 43 has been omitted in its entirety but Section 41 has not been omitted. He also informed that the Finance department shall examine the advance payment of GST on the bills to be released and that the department is prepared to brief the members of the house after the close of the financial year if desired.
When questioned on why the Budget for 2023-24 (Rs.23,085.66 crore) is lesser than the Budget of 2022-23 (Rs. 24,239.50 crore) he said, “the main reasons for this reduction in budget size is because we are estimating less borrowings of WMA by Rs. 500 crore and have reduced our estimates of CSS receipts to make them more realistic. However, in actual, there is an increase in expenditure by 7.10% of our own activities during 2023-24 over the budget of 2022-23. Thus the reduction is more of a numerical correction rather than a reduction in substantive activities”.
He appreciated the members for coming prepared with their valuable views and opinions which add value to the debates and discussions on the floor of the August House and assured the house to attend to all the issues raised.
He also appealed to the members to continually make positive contributions to the debates that take place on the floor of this August House in the future.
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