Chandigarh: Bansal’s allegations baseless, says UT administrator
UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday said Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s allegations of neglectful treatment by central government with regard to fund allocation to Chandigarh were completely baseless
Taking on former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday said his allegations of neglectful treatment by central government with regard to fund allocation to Chandigarh were completely baseless.
While addressing mediapersons at the UT Secretariat, Purohit said, “Bansal is a mature politician. I am pained that he levelled allegations that are completely baseless and without any fact. He should have checked the facts before issuing them to the media.”
On May 28, Bansal had alleged at a media conference that the UT administration was not fully utilising the revenue collected from the city’s taxpayers. He had accused the administration of squandering the money away by not protesting the “stepmotherly treatment” meted out to the city by the Union government.
Responding to this, Purohit said the central government had been consistently allocating a budget that surpassed the revenue collected from taxes. He presented a table reflecting the total budget allocation, expenditure, revenue collection through taxes and other receipts during the past four years.
“The administration has effectively utilised the budget allocation provided by the Government of India in the past four years, as highlighted in the table. Moreover, for the current financial year 2023-24, the UT administration has secured an increased budget allocation of ₹6,087.10 crore, representing a growth of ₹307.98 crore compared to the previous year’s budget allocation of ₹5,779.12 crore,” he said.
In light of these facts, it was incorrect to claim that the Union government provided inadequate budget allocations in relation to the total taxes collected in Chandigarh, the administrator said, adding that the administration was committed to prudent financial management and utilisation of allocated funds to effectively address the needs of its residents.