At Rs 5,12,860 crores, Uttar Pradesh got its biggest ever budget on Tuesday with new schemes worth Rs 10,967.87 crores. Compared to last year’s budget this is a leap of Rs 33, 159 crores.
There is much along predicted lines; Ayodhya figures prominently in the budget. It gets Rs 500 crore for an airport and Rs 10 crore for strengthening the Tulsi Smarak Bhawan. While Rs 50 crores has been set aside to promote tourism units under the state’s Tourism Policy, religious tourism is a clear priority. Garhmukteshwar (the capital of the Pandavas according to mythology) is to be developed to conserve its cultural and ancient heritage. Rs 200 crore have been set aside for the beautification of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. Subsidies worth Rs 8 crore for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and Rs. 10 lakh for Sindhu Darshan Yatra have been earmarked.
Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gets Rs 180 crore for setting-up a Cultural Centre. In addition there is a provision of Rs 18 crore for the construction of a Vedic Vigyan Kendra under Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya.
As a state with a high number of unemployed- the number of registered educated unemployed in UP stood at 21.39 lakh as on June 30, 2018 (as per an answer in the Vidhan Sabha), a leap of 58.43 per cent since 2016, two new schemes have been announced. These are the Chief Minister Apprenticeship Promotion scheme and Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan (YUVA). The budget says these will ‘link the youth of the state with self employment and employment’. The former, for which Rs 100 crore has been set aside, will impart on-job training to the youth of the state in MSME Units and offer them employment for a definite period. During the training period the youth will be given a stipend of Rs 2500- to be borne by the state and the central government as well as by the industry concerned. The second scheme promises employment to lakhs of trained youths in the state. Under this scheme, YUVA Hub will be setup in every districts of the state. The Hub will assist the youth in project concept, financial help for one year and in operation of unit. The scheme is likely to make over one lakh youths self dependent. An amount of Rs. 50 crore is proposed for setting up YUVA Hub in every district. Though packaged as a new scheme, it might well be a rehash of the Mukhyamantri Yuva Swarojgar Yojana launched in 2018 to provide business loans to educated youth between 18 and 30 years of age.
The big ticket announcements for health include Rs 309 crore proposed for Rural Institute of Medical Sciences, Saifai (native village of former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav) and Rs 96 crores for a Government Medical College in Azamgarh (constituency of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav). Rs 73.86 crore have been earmarked for upgrading district hospitals into medical colleges.
Substantial amounts have been set aside for central flagship programmes. Thus while an amount of Rs 6,240 crore has been proposed to construct 5 lakh housing units next year under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Rural), the Swaccha Bharat Mission gets Rs 5,791 crores and with Rs 4,800 crores set aside for MNREGA, 35 crore man days of work are hoped to be created.
Water stressed Bundelkhand and Vindyachal will get Rs 3,300 crores for piped drinking water schemes. The budget has also set aside Rs 200 crores for the Kanhar Irrigation Project in Sonbhadra which has seen resistance from tribals and from environmentalists.
Women and child welfare schemes include Rs 1,200 crores under the 'Mukhyamantri KanyaSumangla Yojna' while a Destitute Women Pension Scheme is also proposed to be started with Rs 1,432 crores and Rs 4,000 crores have been proposed under the National Nutrition drive to check malnutrition in the state. Rs 3 crores have also been earmarked to check cyber crimes against women and children.
While aiming to create a record number of man days of work, the budget also recognizes a growing shortage of farm hands and proposes to distribute 40,606 improved farming implements on subsidy by setting up 1,694 custom hiring centres and 305 farm machinery banks to promote mechanization.
While rain water harvesting has received Rs 48 crores, boring schemes have exceeded this figure by Rs 2 crores.
The CM’s hometown of Gorakhpur gets a Metro Rail Project worth Rs 200 crores, an Ayush University, a link expressway to connect it to the Poorvanchal Expressway and the development of water sports in Ramgarh Taal.
Minority welfare gets Rs 783 crore for improvement of education, sanitation, health, drinking water and basic infrastructure facilities under 'Pradhanmantri Jan Vikas Karyakram' in minority dominated areas. Rs 479 crore have been set aside to provide educational facilities of modern subjects, besides religious education, in recognized Madarsas and Maktabs. It is noteworthy that Haj subsidy finds no mention in the budget.
The home department is also a significant beneficiary of the budget with Rs 650 crores being set aside for construction of non-residential police buildings, Rs 122 crores for the police modernization scheme, Rs 60 crores for the construction of forensic labs and Rs 20 crore for the setting up of a Forensic University. Rs 28 crore for financial assistance under the Central Victim Compensation Fund scheme in the cases of acid attack, rape, human trafficking or murder have also been earmarked.
