With the Union Budget announcing a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a postgraduate institute of horticulture research in Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal thanked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday for giving due consideration to the State.
“Earlier, during the 10-year UPA [United Progressive Alliance] rule, Punjab never even found a mention in the Union Budget,” Mr. Badal said. He thanked Mr. Jaitley for the announcement that Jallianwala Bagh would be developed as a cultural and heritage centre, with ultra-modern landscaping, signage and an interpretation centre.
Mr. Badal lauded the decision to give visa on arrival to citizens of 150 countries in stages. It would help thousands of Punjabis in various countries and give a fillip to tourism.
He said the Budget would put the focus back on agriculture and the social services sector. He said the ambitious soil health card had been introduced to improve soil fertility, and the proposed allocation of Rs. 25,000 crore in 2015-16 to the rural development fund would prove to be a game changer for States such as Punjab. The allocation of Rs. 5,300 crore for micro-irrigation would help save groundwater in Punjab and other States.
The State, he said, will benefit from the micro units development refinance agency (MUDRA) bank, which is being set up with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore. The bank will give priority to enterprises set up by members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in lending, and hence Punjab’s economy will get a boost as the State had the highest Scheduled Caste population.
