Tripura: Girl Students from Class 6-12 to be Provided with Free Sanitary Napkins

Agartala, March 20, 2020:

The Government of Tripura, during its budget, has announced that over Rs 4 crore has been allotted to provide girl students from class to class 12 with free sanitary napkins.

Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma on Friday presented a budget of Rs 19,891.60 crore for the fiscal year 2020-21 with a deficit of Rs 511.41 crore. The budget for this financial year has been increased from Rs 17,530.46 crore to 19,891.60 this year. Last year, the budget was zero deficit and tax-free.

In the budget speech, Dev Varma, who is also the finance minister of the state said the collection of own tax revenue is projected at Rs 2,439.00 crore with a growth rate of 11 per cent, while non-tax revenue is estimated at Rs 302.00 crore in 2020-21. The Deputy Chief Minister said that girl students from 6th standard to 12th standard would be provided free sanitary napkins. “The government has earmarked Rs 4.10 crore for providing sanitary napkins to the girl students for free”, he said.

He said, “Despite having various challenges, we strive to make Tripura - an aspirational Tripura, a progressing Tripura and an achiever Tripura in which all sections of the society achieve better standards of living with access to healthcare, quality education and jobs. Towards this goal, a novel initiative was taken in Tripura to fund infrastructure projects by setting up Tripura Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board”.

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The total receipts from the Centre is projected at Rs 14,270.19 crore in the budget estimate, and the total gross borrowing has been pegged at Rs 2,567.00 crore. The total expenditure in the budget estimate for the year 2020-21 is projected at Rs 19,891.60 crore including revenue expenditure (Rs 17,252.12 crore) and capital expenditure (Rs 2,639.48 crore), the Minister said.

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So far, he added, 78 projects worth Rs. 163.07 crore have been sanctioned. The State has started work on Infrastructure projects' pipeline of Rs. 30,000 crore which is in different stages of implementation. This includes 12 External Aided Projects worth Rs. 18,488 crore. Moreover, projects worth Rs. 4,460 crore has been sent to 15th Finance Commission.

“The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in Tripura is steadily rising. In 2019-20, it is expected to be Rs. 57,353 crore as per quick estimates as compared to Rs. 50,544 crore in 2018-19 and Rs. 44,161 crore in 2017-18. The GSDP is expected to grow at 13.5 per cent during 2019-20 in nominal term. The State's GSDP growth in real terms is about 10 per cent. Similarly, the Per Capita Income is expected to rise to Rs. 1.27 Lakh compared to Rs. 1 Lakh in 2017-18”, he told the house.

Apart from that, the Deputy Chief Minister also said that the government was training not less than 10,000 youths every year under various government-sponsored schemes. Meritorious students from underprivileged section such as SC community will be given Rs 1 lakh as stipend. The government will also start a new scheme of Chief Minister Adarsha Gram (model village), he told the house.

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