Kamal Ghorui
Ranchi: Finance minister Radha Krishna Kishore on Saturday blamed the Centre for not providing the state’s share of around Rs 13,000 crore arising from taxes and grants in the 2025-26 financial year, during the debate on budgets for various departments.Minister for drinking water and sanitation and excise Yogendra Prasad accused the central govt of not allocating funds for Nal Jal Yojna (NJY) leading to delay in implementation of the scheme.Kishore stated that state’s own tax collection was 81%, adding that it would go up to 90-95% in the remaining 15 days of this fiscal. Terming the Union govt as non-cooperative, he stated that till Friday the Centre had not provided the Rs 5,161 crore under the state’s share in taxes and Rs 8,558 crore under grant in aid. “Had the funds been provided, our collections would have reached 95% by now,” he claimed.The minister also stated that during an inquiry it was found that fixed deposits of tourism and energy departments with two PSU banks were not repaid.He added that after the state govt stopped depositing money in the two banks, one of them agreed to pay Rs 45 crore out of Rs 50 crore, adding the issue would be raised with CBI also.He said that state govt would also inquire about Rs 10,000 crore of public funds which has allegedly been missing from 2000 to 2022.Prasad said that central funds of Rs 6,270 crore under NJY are pending, adding that the allocation was nil in 2025-26 and Rs 70 crore in 2024-25. In response to a question on drug abuse raised by MLA Roushan Lal Mahto, Prasad assured that state govt would form special teams to prevent use of banned drugs by youths.During the discussion, leader of opposition Babulal Marandi said that providing drinking water to households is the responsibility of state govt. He also alleged corruption in the excise department.He said that organised crime groups are demanding extortion money from traders and added that in the past one year not a single 4G jammer has been installed in the prisons to prevent use of mobile phones. “There has been no account of Rs 9,737 crore allocated to various departments from 2001 to 2022,” he claimed.MLA Neera Yadav urged for the implementation of the Act to protect journalists.
