A Rs. 500-crore farmers' loan relief scheme to aid debt-ridden agriculturists, many of whom have been forced to commit suicide, and three rural development schemes named after the Samajwadi Party ideologue, Ram Manohar Lohia, are among the 280 new populist measures proposed in the Uttar Pradesh Budget for 2012-13 presented by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday.
Mr. Yadav thus followed in the footsteps of his father, Mulayam Singh, who had presented the Budget for 1990-91.
A piquant situation was created in the House when Leader of the Opposition Swamy Prasad Maurya stood up to protest some points raised by the Chief Minister in his Budget speech, even as Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey asked Mr. Maurya to resume his seat. The BSP then staged a walkout.
The people of the State have been spared additional tax burden, but the government plans to increase tax revenue by 22 per cent for meeting the enhanced size of the Budget — Rs. 2,00,110.61 crore.
The Budget size, which represents an increase of 18 per cent over that of 2011-12, is the highest budgetary proposal presented until now. A revenue surplus of Rs. 5884.35 crore is estimated in 2012-13, while the fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs. 21,570.26 crore, which represents 2.96 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Denying that the government proposed to levy fresh taxes for mobilising additional resources, the Chief Minister told journalists that steps would be taken for increasing the recovery of the departments. A growth rate of 10 per cent had been fixed in the 12th Five Year Plan. In the 11th Plan, U.P.'s growth was pegged at 6.9 per cent.
Mr. Akhilesh Yadav's first Budget contains a proposal of constructing a park spread over 500 acres in Lucknow, on a priority basis, to be named after another Samajwadi icon, Janeshwar Mishra. While the names of all the 280 new schemes proposed have not been given, a massive budgetary provision of Rs. 56,089 crore has been made for the payment of salaries and arrears of the government employees and teachers of government–aided institutions. Education and infrastructure development follow next in terms of budgetary provision.
Mr. Mulayam Singh's flagship scheme of Kanya Vidya Dhan will be relaunched and Rs. 1,000 per month unemployment allowance and tablets and laptops will be given to the jobless and Class 10 and 12 passed students. It had been planned to open model degree colleges in 36 “low gross enrolment ratio” districts, including 23 un-served development blocks and five Muslim-dominated areas.
The education sector gets the lion's share with a provision of Rs. 33,263.39 crore for the extension of education and its quality enhancement, followed by Rs. 23,591.72 crore for infrastructure.
