Govt seeks to speed up growth engine
With focus on development, Yogi govt’s budget offers something for everyone
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh budget for 2019-20 focuses on development of infrastructure by allocating major chunk of funds for construction of expressways and roads along with making adequate provisions for energy, irrigation, education, health and social welfare sectors.
An allocation of Rs 3,194 crore has been made for the construction of expressways.
Though a provision for the newly-announced Ganga Expressway is yet to be made, Rs 1,194 crore has been allocated for Purvanchal Expressway, Rs 1,000 crore for Bundelkhand Expressway and Rs 1,000 crore for Gorakhpur Link Expressway.
A total of Rs 250 crore has been earmarked for One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme that chief minister Yogi Adityanath had launched on the occasion of first Uttar Pradesh Diwas here in January 2018. A total of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for Mukhyamantri Yuva Swarozgar Yojana.
AGRICULTURE
For the National Agriculture Development Scheme, the budget has proposed ₹892 crore and for the National Crop Insurance Programme, ₹450 crore. A sum of
₹150 crore has been proposed for fertilizers storage.
Apart from this, the government has proposed 5,000 metric tonnes each storage capacity at 40 mandis for improving agriculture produce storage. ₹36 crore has been proposed for consolidation of 13 agriculture research centres.
In irrigation sector, the allocations have gone up to Rs 12,208.70 crore against Rs 10,938.19 crore given in 2018-2019.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
A sum of ₹6,240 crore have been proposed for Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana-Gramin; ₹3,488 crore for National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; ₹2,945 crore for National Rural Drinking Water programme and ₹1,393 crore for National Rural Livelihood Mission. For Swachcha Bharat Mission-Gramin, ₹6,000 crore has been proposed, and ₹100 crore for cremation grounds in rural areas.
AVIATION SECTOR
The government on Thursday earmarked 2203.96 crore as against Rs 1200 crore last year in the state budget.
A sum of Rs 1000 crore has been allocated for expansion, construction and maintenance of air strips to boost the infrastructure. The state government has also allocated budget of Rs 800 crore for Jevar airport, where the work of land acquisition and payment of compensation to the land holder is set to gather pace.
BUDGETARY TRIBUTE FOR ATAL
The state government gave a ‘budgetary’ tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by announcing few projects on his name. While it allocated Rs 50 crore to set up Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow, Rs 2200 crore have been earmarked for Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. The government also allocated Rs 2 crore for Atal Good Governance Chair in Lucknow University. A budgetary provision of Rs 5 crore to setup a Centre of Excellence in the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in DAV College, Kanpur has also been made. Vajpayee, who died on August 16 last year, represented Lucknow parliamentary seat for five times.
CASH ASSISTANCE SCHEME FOR GIRLS
The state government also announced a scheme — Kanya Sumangala Yojna — for girls and made a budgetary allocation of Rs 1200 crore for it.
ENERGY SECTOR GETS 20% MORE THAN 2018
The energy sector got a big boost with a hike of more than 20 per cent from the last year’s annual budgetary allocation. With more than a dozen schemes and ongoing projects, the Uttar Pradesh government has set aside Rs 35,922.38 crore in the new budget to strengthen the power infrastructure and provide electricity to all.
While an amount of Rs 2,200 crore has been allocated for improving the power distribution network, the government has converted another Rs 4,891.72 crore loan given under Uday Yojana Scheme as a grant to the UPPCL.
₹175 CR FOR METRO PROJECTS
The state government has allocated ₹175 crore each for the implementation of metro rail projects in Agra and Kanpur while ₹150 crore has been allocated for primary work on metro rail in Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Meerut on Thursday.