Yogi Adityanath’s New Government Presents First Budget, Says Uttar Pradesh Set To Become $ 1 Trillion Economy

The Yogi Adityanath government on Thursday presented the maiden budget of its second term in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that it is on the way to turning the state into a $1 trillion economy in the coming years.

The Rs 6.15 lakh crore budget for 2022-23 -- up from Rs 5.5 lakh crore last year --- sets aside Rs 39,000 crore for welfare schemes, the government said.

In the current financial year the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Uttar Pradesh government will spend Rs 1,500 crore on a youth empowerment scheme, Rs 1,000 crore on a scheme to develop small irrigation projects and Rs 650 crore to help farmers and their families if the breadwinner meets with an accident.

A big ticket item is the Centre-initiated Jal Jeevan Mission. The Uttar Pradesh government has earmarked Rs 19,500 crore this year to provide drinking water in water-scarce regions under the scheme.

"The economy of the state is improving rapidly. We believe that we will be successful in taking the state's economy to $1 trillion," Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said in the budget speech, with the chief minister sitting next to him in the state assembly.

Hailing the budget later, Adityanath said it met the aspirations of the people.

It has allotted Rs 54,883 crore for 97 schemes out of the total 130 points mentioned in the BJP manifesto in the recent assembly polls, he told reporters. This includes the election promise of providing two cooking gas cylinders free each year to the beneficiaries of the 'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana'.

The opposition slammed the entire exercise.

Samajwadi Party president called it a “spider's web of statistics” and Bahujan Samaj Party’s leader Mayawati termed it “clichéd”.

On law and order, the budget has proposed spending over Rs 730 crore for strengthening the Police Emergency Management System.

Over Rs 276 crore will be set aside for establishing the Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force entrusted with the security of courts and historical and religious places, including Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura.

Also, the budget provides Rs 100 crore for beautification and development of tourism facilities in Ayodhya and Varanasi.

The Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Scheme, under which the government is distributing smartphones and computer tablets, gets Rs 1,500 crore. Twelve lakh devices have already been distributed out of the two crore planned over five years.

The budget promotes entrepreneurship among the youth under the Uttar Pradesh Startup Policy-2020. The target is to establish 100 incubators and 10,000 startups over five years, Khanna said.

An amount of Rs 30 crore has been earmarked for setting up coaching facilities near their homes in all districts for students preparing for competitive exams.

The budget provides Rs 72 crore for women empowerment schemes and proposes setting up cyber helpdesks at the district level. Mission Shakti, under which women undergo skill development programmes, also gets Rs 20 crore.

For farmers, a “stability fund” has been set up to ensure minimum support price for perishable crops like potato, tomato and onion.

The budget allows spending Rs 650 crore under a scheme related to farmers who meet with accidents. The government will give up to Rs 5 lakh if a farmer dies in an accident or suffers a disability.

About Rs 50 crore will be spent this year on the upcoming Rs 700-crore Major Dhyan Chand University in Meerut, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone on January 2.

The state government will also spend Rs 95 crore on buying land to establish an international cricket stadium in Varanasi.

Finance Minister Khanna said 26 crore man-days were created in financial year 2021-22 under the MGNREGA rural employment scheme. The target this year is 32 crore man-days.

The government has also set a target to generate employment for 16,000 people by establishing 800 units in rural areas. Also, 7,540 posts have been generated in the secondary education system and 10,000 new jobs for nurses are being created in the coming years.

The budget has set aside Rs 250 crore this year for the Chief Minister's Tourist Places Scheme for developing one tourist destination in each assembly constituency.

Under another scheme, the state government will spend Rs 10 crore to help young lawyers buy books and magazines during the first three years of work.

Reacting to the budget, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said the government had promised to double the income of farmers by 2022 and asked if that has happened.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati claimed that the government was fooling the people.