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UP supplementary budget: Yogi Adityanath govt woos youths, farmers and workers
The Uttar Pradesh government’s supplementary budget of ₹7301.52 crore is only 1.33% of the annual budget of ₹ 5.50 lakh crore, according to the state’s finance minister Suresh Khanna. The focus is on providing funds for public welfare schemes, ongoing projects along with creating job opportunities for the youths, he says
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday presented a supplementary budget of ₹7301.52 crore for 2021-22, providing large or even token sums to fund schemes, including ones to make youths digitally proficient, pay increased honorarium to different categories of workers such as shiksha mitras, anganwadi workers and village chowkidars, clear dues of farmers and provide for the welfare of cows ahead of the 2022 assembly election in the state. The election is due early next year.
Additional sums have been provided for some of the ongoing projects, too, in the first supplementary demands for grants for 2021-2022 that minister for finance Suresh Khanna presented in the state assembly in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
After presentation of the supplementary budget, Khanna called Yogi Adityanath “Ram of politics who is in the House to defeat the asuri shaktis or demons” when leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary objected to the minister’s speech on the supplementary budget. Chaudhary, however, continued to make his point about rising inflation and other issues.
Khanna also said, “The supplementary demands for ₹ 7301.52 crore are only 1.33% of the annual budget of ₹ 5.50 lakh crore. Our focus has been on providing funds for important public welfare schemes, certain ongoing projects along with other demands especially the one for ₹3,000 crore to create job opportunities for the youth (scheme to make you youth digitally proficient). Funds have been demanded for social security of advocates and construction of a memorial and cultural centre in the name of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.”
“Four-and-a-half years of this government have changed the perception of the people who feel the Yogi government has made some new records and also broken certain records,” said Khanna. He said funds have been provided for payment of sugarcane dues, social security for advocates, maintenance of cows and bringing about an improvement in the infrastructure in Ayodhya.
While ₹ 300 crore has been provided for maintenance of animals of the cow family, ₹40 crore has been earmarked for payment of increased honorarium to rozgar sevaks.
Other allocations include a sum of ₹ 2 crore for honouring Tokyo Olympics medal winners. A sum of ₹100 crore has been earmarked for the Bundelkhand Expressway and ₹ 50 crore for the Ballia Link Expressway project. A sum of ₹ 30.86 crore has been provided for payment of interest on loan taken from the rural electrification corporation under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme. A sum of ₹1500 crore has been demanded to fund the losses of power distribution companies under the UDAY scheme. An additional sum of ₹ 200 crore has been earmarked under the Swachh Bharat Mission and ₹ 200 crore for payment of sugarcane dues of sugar mills of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Sugar Mills Federation.
Under provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, the state government has declared that the supplementary budget includes a sum of ₹ 124 crore to be received from the Centre for centrally sponsored schemes. It said the demands would be funded by achieving the tax and non-tax revenue realisation targets and cutting down the unproductive expenditure.
“It’s good that the state government has kept the size of the supplementary budget at a modest level. It has refrained from announcing freebies to impress the electorate, though steps have been taken to give relief to workers at the grassroots level like the Asha (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers and village chowkidars that have a direct connect with the people,” said professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of the department of economics, Lucknow University.
Funds earmarked for Ayodhya, Kashi projects, Ambedkar centre
The Uttar Pradesh government’s supplementary budget for 2021-provides ₹209.69 crore to set up public amenities and parking facilities at six places in Ayodhya, ₹ 40 crore for strengthening/broadening of the road from the Ganga river to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, ₹ 50 crore for memorial and cultural centre in the name of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and ₹90 crore for social security fund scheme for payment of ₹ 5 lakh each to advocates who have completed the 30-year membership. It also has a provision of ₹ 500 crore for expenditure, establishment and publicity.
A sum of ₹ 5.01 crore has been earmarked for setting up of Uttar Pradesh National Law University, Prayagraj.
There is a provision of ₹ 265 crore for payment of increased honorarium to “anganwadi”, “mini anganwadi” workers and “anganwadi” assistants, ₹ 47.88 crore for increasing the honorarium to village chowkidars and ₹129.78 crore to pay increased honorarium to Asha (urban and rural) workers.
Plus, ₹ 123.55 crore is meant for an increase in honorarium of shiksha mitras, ₹ 1.63 crore for increasing honorarium of head cook/assistant cook and ₹ 28.91 crore for increase in honorarium paid to part time instructors, in addition to ₹ 28 lakh for expenditure on the establishment of Lok Ayukta Sangathan.
Besides, a sum of ₹ 1.83 crore has been earmarked for payment of expenditure under outsourcing head in the office of advocate general of Uttar Pradesh.
A sum of ₹ 61.07 crore is for increasing honorarium paid to PRD (Prantiya Raksha Dal) jawans and a token sum of ₹1 lakh for the payment of salary of employees of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Yuva Kalyan Parishad.
A sum of ₹ 9.70 crore has been earmarked for construction of multi-purpose building of Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan while ₹ 30 lakh has been provided for subsidy to Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan to honour Sanskrit pandits.
A sum of ₹ 297 crore has been earmarked for expenditure on establishment of Nirvachan Sangthan while a sum of 3 crore has been earmarked for construction of a godown for storing EVM/VVPAT.
A sum of ₹ 2.08 crore has been earmarked for holding examination to fill up vacancies in the Vidhan Parishad and ₹ 8.68 crore to implement the e-office system in the Vidhan Parishad secretariat.
A token sum of ₹ 1 lakh has been earmarked under the medical device park promotion scheme, ₹ 66.50 lakh for payment of interest on VAT (Value Added Tax) paid for selling NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) fertiliser from January 1, 2008 to April 24, 2008.
A sum of ₹ 1.28 crore has been earmarked for payment of salary of the training period to IAS officers under probation.
