Uttar Pradesh finance minister Suresh Khanna on Friday presented the first budget of the Yogi Adityanath government in its second term in the Legislative Assembly. Stating that the economy of the state is improving rapidly, Khanna said, "We believe we will be successful in taking the economy to $1 trillion."
Sharing a tweet as the budget was being tabled, Adityanath wrote in Hindi, “There is a resolution for a 'self-reliant Uttar Pradesh' in the budget.”
Tabling the budget, the finance minister said 10,000 startups and 100 incubators will be set up in the next five years in the state to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in various fields among the youth. As part of the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra, 2022, a target has been set to distribute two crore smartphones and tablets in the next five years among the youth of urban and rural areas to make them technically competent, Khanna said.
Seated next to the chief minister, the FM said the free tablet/smartphone distribution scheme was launched from December 25, 2021, under which about 12 lakh tablets/smartphones were made available to the districts for distribution.
Under the Swami Vivekananda Yuva Sashaktikaran scheme, a provision of ₹1,500 crore has been proposed for the financial year 2022-2023.
He said the unemployment rate in the state was 18 per cent in June, 2016, which came down to 2.9 per cent in April, 2022.
“In the last five years, more than 9.25 lakh youth have been certified by the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission by providing training to them in various types of short term training programmes in which 4.22 lakh youth have been employed in various reputed companies.”
The finance minister said for the safety and security of women and girls, the state government has set up “Women Help Desk” at all 1,535 police stations in the state.
To promote women participation in police, the government has allotted 10,370 women beat constables to 2,740 women police personnel across the districts. Besides, three Women Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) Battalions in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Budaun will be set up for maximum participation of women. He proposed a provision of ₹20 crore for the safety and empowerment of women and skill development under the Mission Shakti program in the micro and small scale industries sector.
The FM proposed a provision of ₹523.34 crore for the implementation of the scheme in Lucknow, Gautam Budh Nagar, Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Prayagraj for the safety of women under the Safe City scheme.
Khanna also proposed a budget of ₹276.66 crore for a special security force entrusted with the task of security of courts and historical and religious places, including Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura.
An amount of ₹250 crore was proposed for security equipment and weapons for district police stations. He said a forensic science institute is being set up in Lucknow.
The finance minister Suresh Khanna said ATS centers will be constructed in Meerut, Bahraich, Kanpur, Azamgarh and Rampur. Apart from this, UP Special Security Force has been formed for the security of important establishments of UP, for which a provision of ₹276.66 crore was proposed. A provision of ₹730.88 crore was proposed for the second phase of UP-112 scheme.
Khanna said UP ranked at the top in providing annual financial assistance worth ₹6,000 each to 250 crore farmers from the Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. He said UP is also the first state in the country to have five expressways. Khanna further said three green energy corridors will be created in Bundelkhand.
In a bid to develop sports, the FM proposed setting up of ‘Khelo India Centres’ in every district of the state under the the Centre's one-district one-sports scheme. No new taxes was proposed in the budget.
(With inputs from UP bureau)