BHOPAL: Finance minister Tarun Bhanot on Wednesday presented a vote on account in the state assembly and sought Rs 8,94,38 crore for government expenditure for the first quarter of the next fiscal. Presenting the vote on account in the state assembly on Wednesday, Bhanot also presented the third supplementary budget for the year 2018-19 of Rs 122 crore.Later, the House debated both the demands simultaneously.Though vote on account only seeks permission from the House to meet expenditure of the state government till the full budget is presented, the data tabled in the House did throw some light on priority areas of Kamal Nath government. Agriculture department with an allocation of Rs 6,136 crore has the maximum outlay. The combined capital and revenue expenditure of energy department would exceed Rs 6,308 crore for the period in question. The state government would make a capital expenditure of Rs 1,079 crore in the energy sector, according to the vote on account document.The total budget outlay of agriculture department in the previous budget was Rs 9,278.95 crore while it was Rs 17,791.91 crore for energy department.Emphasis of the new Congress government on infrastructure development is also clear as the vote on account provides for capital expenditure of Rs 2,791 crore on roads and bridges construction. An additional amount of Rs 505 crore has also been provided for revenue expenditure for the PWD.School education is another priority area as an amount of Rs 5,693 crore for revenue expenditure and Rs 165 crore for capital expenditure has been sought for the first four months of the fiscal 2019-20. An outlay of Rs 21,724.05 crore was made for the department in 2018-19.There is considerable increase in the allocation for public health department either with Kamal Nath government seeking an amount of Rs 2,588 crore for revenue expenditure and Rs 112 crore for capital expenditure in the vote on account. The total budget for the department in 2018-19 was Rs 5,986 crore.Expenditure for the animal husbandry department has also been increased substantially. Finance minister, Tarun Bhanot sought Rs 462 crore of revenue and Rs 7.4 crore of capital expenditure for the department. In the 2018-19 budget the total outlay for the department was Rs 1,038.83 crore. If the expenditure estimated in the first four months is any indication, budget for the department may go up by about 50% this fiscal. This could be attributed to Congress government's plan to establish 1000 cow shelters across the state during the year.The vote on account suggests, tourism department has also got a better deal from Kamal Nath government with Rs 53.26 crore sought for revenue expenditure and Rs 324 crore for capital expenditure. It would exceed the budget of Rs 232 crore provided by the BJP government in 2018-19.Budget for Bhopal gas relief & rehabilitation department would remain more or less the same with Tarun Bhanot asking for Rs 47.58 crore for the department for expenses in the first quarter. The budget for the department was Rs 133.61 crore.

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