Yogi Government presents UPs first paperless budget

Yogi Government presented its annual budget today. This was the first paperless budget presented in the state assembly.

The UP Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, in his Budget speech, said that the state government was committed to the promise of doubling farmers` income and had earmarked a sum of Rs 700 crore for free irrigation. Apart from this the government has announced Rs 600 crore for the farmers' accident welfare scheme and a sum of Rs 400 crore has been set aside for providing crop loans to farmers. An additional sum of Rs 3,100 crore has been earmarked for farmers` pension and in 2021-22, it also proposes to set up 15,000 solar pumps.

It seems the Farmers Agitation and its backlash which could result in dwindling of its prospects, mainly in Western Uttar Pradesh weighed heavy on those behind the budget.

The budget presented today was for a whopping Rs 5,50,270.78 crore, with new schemes worth Rs 27,598.40 crore and is over Rs 37,410 crore more than the previous year's budget size.

Allocation towards Development was also rather high since the state government is looking to be re-elected rather soon. Towards that goal a sum of Rs 2000 crore has been allocated towards new airports in Noida's Jewar, Chitrakoot and Sonbhadra.

Also for the Gorakhpur Expressway, the government has given Rs 750 crore. For the Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway, the government allocated Rs 1,107 crore and Rs 1,492 crore, respectively. Apart from this, Rs 7,200 crore for land acquisition of Ganga Expressway Project and Rs 489 crore for construction work.

Health also seems to taken some mindscape while the Budget was being designed and Rs 50 crore for vaccination scheme towards prevention of Covid-19. Covid 19 and the fact that the State’s Healthcare framework has shown a lot of weakness and hence Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana launched with a Provision of Rs. 100 crore for this scheme.

Rs 1950 crore allocated for construction of new medical colleges in 13 districts such as Bijnor, Kushinagar, Sultanpur, Gonda Lalitpur, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Chandauli, Bulandshahar, Sonbhadra, Pilibhit, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat and Kaushambi and Rs 48 crore for medical colleges of 16 un-served districts of the state to make them operational in PPP mode.

Rs 960 crore proposed for medical colleges under construction in Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Ghazipur and Mirzapur. Rs 175 crore proposed for the establishment of new medical colleges in Amethi and Balrampur and Rs 100 crore for the establishment of the Atal Bihari Bajpayee Medical University, Lucknow.

Rs 1300 crore made for Ayushman Bharat Yojana. Rs 142 crore made for Ayushman Bharat- Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana and Rs 1073 crore made for creating diagnostic infrastructure for primary health care facilities. Rs 425 crore made for Urban Health and Arogya Centres.

Rs 54 crore made for strengthening the State Drug Control System whereas Rs 50 crore proposed for the establishment of food and drug laboratories and divisional offices in 12 commissionaires of the state. Rs 77 crore made for establishment of block level Public Health Units, Rs 320 crore made for Pradhanmantri Matritva Vandana Yojana and Rs 23 crore proposed for National Digital Health Mission.

AAP Government in Delhi has also created further pressures on the rest of the country and hence the UP government has also shown an inclination of not losing out to its political adversaries. Under Mukhya Mantri Kanya Sumangal Yojana, the government allocated Rs 1,200 crore to give tablets to girl students and to eligible students under ‘Mukhya Mantri Abhyudaya’ Yojana and a provision of Rs. 270 crore for Atal Awasiya Vidyalaya.

Rs 20 crore made for the establishment of new sports university in Meerut district.

Mukhyamantri Pravasi Shramik Udyamita Vikas Yojana’ - a new scheme of Rs 100 crore will be launched with the aim of providing employment and self-employment to the migrant workers coming from other states and a sum of Rs 12 crore for Mukhyamantri Durghatna Bima Yojana for providing social security to palledars, labourers’ families and workers of unorganized sector.

Apart from this, a plan to set up Model Career Centre in 12 other districts of the state.

Rs 15,000 crore for Jal Jeevan Mission (Gramin) Scheme and Rs 1400 crore for Swachh Bharat Mission (Shahri).

Rs 2,031 crore for the construction of over 12 lakh private toilets and 98,000 community toilets in the year 2021-2022 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) scheme.

But what has got the most of the media attention is the fact that the state government has allocated Rs 140 crore for overall development of Ayodhya and Rs 101 crore for airport in the city.