Reduce size of Cabinet, limit expenses: Citizens

Responding to the appeal of the finance ministry, 1,400 citizens have submitted their suggestions to it. Some of them suggested that the ministry should to minimise the size of Cabinet to reduce the financial burden over state exchequer, whereas another section suggested strict monitoring of the disbursed grant, as in several cases, the grants have lapsed at the end of the year.

In November 2015, the finance department had announced a cash reward to the people who would suggest innovative ideas on how to increase revenue of the state or how to reduce its expenditure. The government had decided that the winner with the most innovative idea would be rewarded with '10 lakh, the runner with '7.50 lakh and 25 others with good ideas would get ' 1 lakh each.

“About 1,400 citizens have responded via emails to finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s appeal so far. Also, more than 700 people sent their suggestions through letters,” said one of the members of the scrutinising committee, under the condition of anonymity.

The state has formed a committee, headed by additional chief secretary (finance) Sudhir Srivastav, to scrutinise the suggestions sent by the citizens and select the innovative ideas on schemes or solutions that could be included in upcoming budget for financial year 2016-17.

The member from the scrutinising committee also said that citizens have recommended curtailing the size of cabinet in order to save government money. “Ministers use our money to renovate

government bungalows and their office furniture. Reduction in the number of ministers will reduce the expenditure,” read one of the suggestions.

Another person who sent his suggestion through email said that 100 percent grant should not be given to departments as most of them do not use the fund and it results in lapsing of the grants at the end of the financial year.

“There should be a mechanism to monitor on expenses of the department. Allocate grant step by step and do not allocate the next installation till previous amount is utilised properly,” the citizen advised.

However, the committee member said that they have not yet received any innovative suggestion that could be introduced in budget speech. “We are hopeful that we will get ideas from common people as well as from economist and financial experts, politicians and even from journalists before the deadline of February 20,” he said.