Finance minister to present Yogi govt first budget today
All eyes are on Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha’s budget session, the Yogi Adityanath government’s first, beginning on Tuesday that is likely to make provision for Rs 36,000 crop loan waiver. Finance minister Rajesh Agarwal will present the budget.
Besides making a provision for nearly Rs 36,000 crop loan waiver, the annual budget is likely to include allocations for some of the schemes that the BJP had included in its Sankalp Patra2017.
On the eve of the session, the finance minister signed the first full budget of the Yogi government. Late in the evening, the chief minister attended an allparty meet of the legislators for the smooth running of the session that is scheduled to end on July 28.
The all-party meet at the Vidhan Sabha was delayed because of the delay in chief minister’s return to Lucknow from Himachal Pradesh. Yogi, who was in Una, was to fly from Una to Chandigarh in a helicopter, but he travelled to Chandigarh by road because of a snag in the chopper.
The CM earlier had announced that his government will not pass on the burden of loan waiver to the people of UP. The Samajwadi Party government had presented the interim budget for 2017-2018 and got the vote on account for the first five months of 2017-2018 passed in the state legislature before the announcement of 2017 assembly elections.
The session is expected to have a rough start as the entire opposition will want to corner the government over law and order and sensational crime cases, including the killing of five persons in Rae Bareli on June 26. The main opposition Samajwadi Party also plans to protest the government’s proposal to demolish many cycle tracks constructed during Akhilesh Yadav government’s tenure.
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday convened a meeting of its legislators at the party’s state headquarters ahead of the budget session starting Tuesday.
After the meeting, leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha Ram Govind Chaudhary, who is also the leader of SP legislators’ group, alleged that the Yogi government had failed on all fronts.
“Law and order has gone worse. The government has also failed to start any development work and it is not development oriented. All that it did in its tenure so far is changing the names of the Samajwadi Party government’s projects and schemes. It has announced to demolish the cycle tracks that our government built for health, environment and easing traffic congestion. The government is indulging in the politics of vendetta,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav, who is abroad and is due to return to Lucknow late on Tuesday, will miss the first day of the session.
UP parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said that the government was ready to answer all possible questions of the opposition. It is the responsibility of the opposition parties to let the house proceedings run smoothly, he said.
UP PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS MINISTER SURESH KHANNA SAID THAT THE GOVT WAS READY TO ANSWER ALL POSSIBLE QUESTIONS OF THE OPPOSITION.