The Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat’s annual Budget for 2020-21 with focus on social welfare, agriculture, environment, and infrastructure development, with a projected revenue of ₹705.34 crore, expenditure of ₹686.98 crore, and surplus of ₹18.36 crore, was presented on Tuesday. Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Budget presentation was held with all safety precautions.
Patheyam, one of the civic body’s most important ongoing projects providing food daily to 6,592 indigent persons at their doorstep, gets an allocation of ₹3.25 crore. The LIFE project gets ₹22 crore. The Saphala project for cultivation of pesticide-free vegetables in fallow land gets an allocation of ₹1 crore.
The Kedaram project to promote coconut farming gets a sum of ₹3 crore.
Health care
The Snehasparsham project to provide financial support for mentally challenged children gets an allocation of ₹2 crore. An allocation of ₹1 crore has been made for the Ashwas project for poor patients. With a focus on gender budgeting, more than half of the funds have been set aside for projects meant for women.
Later, district panchayat president V.K. Madhu said in a press meet that no specific funds had been set aside for fighting COVID-19, as the civic body was already spending from its own funds, from which any amount can be used for the purpose.
