Infra to Youth: UP CM Yogi Adityanath's ‘Most Progressive' Budget Bonanza in 10 Points

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, on Wednesday, tabled what it termed the “most progressive” budget of Rs 6.90 lakh crore for the fiscal year 2023-24.

UP’s finance minister Suresh Khanna, while presenting the budget in the legislative assembly, said, “Budget for 2023 is the biggest budget in the history of UP, which largely focuses on infrastructure and overall development of UP.”

Last year’s budget for UP was worth Rs 6.15 lakh crore. The finance minister said, the budget, which is Yogi Government 2.0’s second budget, is aimed at achieving the goal of making UP, a 1-trillion-dollar economy.

Hailing it as an ‘all-rounder budget’ that largely focuses on infrastructural development, employment opportunities and welfare schemes for women and youth, Adityanath said: “This is the new UP’s budget. It will not only add development, but will also add new golden chapters in the history of social, economic and cultural development of state.”

The opposition, however, reacted strongly to, calling it an “aimless budget”. “Just by calling it historic won’t help. It’s an aimless budget that would lead people nowhere. The issues of women, farmers and youths will remain, with no solutions. I ask the CM and finance minister when UP will achieve its goal of being a one-trillion-dollar economy and get relief from the inflation,” Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said. SP leader Shivpal Yadav, too, slammed the Yogi Government for its budget.

The salient features of the budget:

1. The budget includes new schemes worth Rs 32,721 crore, while the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 6,90,242 crore.
2. The highlights were infrastructure and industrial development projects such as a provision of Rs 235 crore for the initial phase of the new projects of the Jhansi Link Expressway and the Chitrakoot Link Expressway.
3. For the Defence Corridor Project and the Bundelkhand Expressway, Rs 550 crore has been proposed.
4. Rs 200 crore has been proposed for the industrial corridor in Gorakhpur on both sides of the Gorakhpur Link Expressway. It has been decided to set up industrial manufacturing complexes at six places on the banks of Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway.
5. An amount of Rs 21,159 crore has been proposed for construction of roads and bridges.
6. The focus is also on health. For operation of various programs under the National Rural Health Mission, a provision of Rs 12,631 crore has been proposed.
7. In the last financial year, a 50% discount was given on electricity bills of private tube-well consumers. It has been raised to 100% in the financial year 2023–2024, for which a provision of Rs 1,500 crore is made, according to the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra declaration.
8. A provision of Rs 2,500 crore has been made in the budget for the grand event of the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, compared to Rs 621.55 crore in 2022-23.
9. A target to construct 12,39,877 houses in the financial year 2023-24 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural) has been fixed.
10. The state’s fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs 84, 883 crore, which is 3.48% of the estimated Gross State Domestic Product.

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