Big push for agriculture, education, health in Punjab budget
No new taxes, 26% hike in allocation over last year as Punjab budget focuses on agriculture, education, health
The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab presented its budget for financial year 2023-24 on Friday with a pronounced focus on farm sector and infra push in education and health, besides hiking the fund allocation for modernisation of police and its counter-intelligence wing.
Presenting the ₹1,96,462-crore budget with no new taxes, finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema announced a hefty 20% increase in the allocation for agriculture and allied sectors to raise it to ₹13,888 crore along with a slew of new schemes such as a revolving fund for crop diversification, a market price risk mitigation scheme for horticulture crops, crop insurance for farmers and solarisation of all diesel-based pump sets in next five years. “Boosting the income of farmers and labourers though promotion of agriculture and allied activities is one of the central themes of the budget this year,” the finance minister said in his nearly two-and-a-half-hour address in the state assembly during which members of the Congress staged a walkout.
They left the House after speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan did not allow a party MLA, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, to raise a point of order. Warring later told reporters that he was trying to ask the FM about the party’s poll guarantee (promise) of ₹1,000 monthly allowance to all women in the state.
There was no mention of monthly allowance for women and old pension scheme in the budget speech.
Revolving fund for crop diversification
Reading out the budget address from a tablet device, the finance minister he said the government’s crop diversification push with an initial allocation of ₹1,000-crore would include market intervention for basmati procurement for which a revolving fund would be created, 33% subsidy on cotton seeds and track and trace mechanism for ensuring only quality seeds. Another announcement was for engagement of 2,574 kisan mitras to provide extension services to farmers and help them adopt best practices in agriculture. An increase in funds for direct procurement of moong and incentive to farmers for adopting direct seeding of rice has also been proposed.
Additionally, the allocation for the horticulture sector has been doubled to ₹253 crore for the coming fiscal. The risk mitigation scheme, Bhaav Antar Bhugtan Yojna, proposed by the finance minister with an initial allocation of ₹15 crore is aimed at ensuring right remuneration for horticulture producers whenever market prices fluctuate beyond a certain level. The farm sector accounts for bulk of new initiatives announced in the budget. The farmers are a crucial vote bank in Punjab and had voted overwhelmingly for the AAP in the state polls last year which were swept by the party. However, there have been a series of protests by the farmer unions and the budgetary announcements are being seen as an attempt to placate them by addressing their issues ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The finance minister, in his second budget, continued the priority to health and education sectors which seen as the cornerstones of the ‘AAP model of governance’. Announcing an increase of 12% in the outlay for education to raise it to ₹17,072 crore, he allocated ₹99 crore for creation of the post of ‘estate managers’ for all government senior secondary schools for their upkeep so that teachers can concentrate only on academics. For the government’s flagship ‘Schools of Eminence’ programme to upgrade 117 schools, a budget of ₹200 crore has been proposed. Already, four of these schools are being ungraded in Amritsar and will be showcased during the G20 summit meeting next week. A sum of ₹20 crore has been allocated for the scheme for training of government school principals.
The scheme has led to political slugfest with governor Banwarilal Purohit asking the state government regarding the process followed for the selection of principals. In health sector, the budget has been hiked by 11 per cent with the state government. Cheema said that as against the initial target of establishing 117 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’, the government set up 504 and 142 were in the pipeline.