E-Paper
MP budget: FM announces ₹370 core Shankaracharya statue, new student hostels
Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jagdish Devda presented the state’s budget for financial year 2022-23 in the legislative assembly.
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government announced a slew of new schemes in the state budget presented by finance minister Jagdish Devda on Wednesday, including a ₹370-core allocation for a grand statue of 8th century Indian philosopher Adi Shankaracharya.
Devda said that the estimate of the budget was ₹2,79,237 crore with total receipts of ₹2,47,715 crore and a total revenue loss of ₹3736 crore, adding no new taxes will be imposed for the financial year 2022-23.
Apart from the statue of Shankaracharya, who Devda said consolidated the Advaita Vedanta doctrine and set up four monastic institutions across India, a ₹30 crore allocation has also been made for a Ram Van Gaman Path project, and an animal husbandry scheme to ensure the protection of cows.
Devda also announced a slew of new measures for scheduled castes and tribes. “Tribal Development Corporation will be constituted to provide new job opportunities to tribals. Similarly, a provision of ₹40 crore has been made for Scheduled Caste Finance Development Corporation and ₹50 crore for Other Backward Classes (OBC). Special provisions of employment for women of SC/ST and OBC have been made in the budget,” he said.
The government said that it will also renew a focus on school education, beginning Samrasta hostels across the state, run by the school education department, sanctioned for ₹50 crore. School education minister Inder Singh Parmar said, “As of now, school education department runs only girl’s hostels. Other school hostels are run by specific departments including tribal, scheduled caste and OBC department, so we have decided to start hostels for all categories and gender students from class 1 to 12 for their overall development.”
The budget also has a provision for two new industrial parks in Bhopal, and solar plants to be set up in Sagar, Ujjain and Shajapur. A new demand-driven crop diversification scheme will be introduced with a budget provision of ₹12 crore to promote crops other than wheat and paddy, Devda said.
The state government has also made a provision of ₹120 crore to purchase a jet plane as the present state aircraft, purchased in 2020, was destroyed in an accident last year. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said this budget will make the state self-reliant and will fulfill the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Even in adverse conditions, MP GDP (gross domestic product) has increased. Now our focus is on changing the lives of the people. This budget was formed according to the suggestion of common people and economists. It has the provision of infrastructure development of every region and it touched every section of the society,” he said.
Opposition Congress leaders on Wednesday staged a protest in the assembly before Devda’s speech raising issues such as rising unemployment, scholarships for SC, ST and OBC students and Narmada River conservation. Leader of opposition in the state assembly, Kamal Nath said, “There is nothing for any section in this budget. In Shivraj’s government, milk and edible oil are expensive and alcohol is cheap. This is the real summary of the budget. The people of the state had high hopes from this budget, but this budget has disappointed the people of the state and they have been cheated once again.”
