Agriculture, infra development focus of Rs 4.28 lakh cr UP budget

Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday presented a Rs 4,28,384.52-crore budget for the financial year 2018-19 that focuses on the agriculture and allied sectors in a big way.

The annual budget, presented by state Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal in the assembly, has 11.4 per cent higher budgetary provisions this time than the previous budget and proposes Rs 14,341.89 crore allocation for new schemes.

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister outlined a target of 581.60 lakh metric tonne (MT) for food production and 11.28 lakh MT for oil seeds production, and proposed a targeted 1.65 lakh hectares for winter sugarcane sowing.

In its second budget, the government announced that a “Chief Minister Food Processing Industry Policy-2017” had been implemented, under which a provision of Rs 82.49 crore had been proposed for implementation of the Chief Minister Food Processing Mission.

In the cooperative sector, the Finance Minister said, a provision of Rs 100 crore had been proposed for advance storage of fertilisers, Rs 31 crore for computerisation work for primary agriculture co-operative societies and Rs 200-crore provision for subsidy on crop loans to farmers at cheaper rates.

The budget also lays emphasis on the needs of cattle and animal husbandry. The Minister announced that 770 mobile cattle hospitals were running in the state through which cattle health and breed improvement would be ensured.

A provision of Rs 75 crore has been proposed for Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Mini Dairy Scheme, Rs 15 crore for Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Pashu Arogya Mela in development blocks and Rs 100 crore for the National Cattle Health and Disease Control Programme, according to Agarwal.

In the housing sector, an amount of Rs 11,500 crore has been proposed for Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) in the 2018-19 budget year, Rs 1,040 crore under the National Rural Livelihood Mission and Rs 214 crore for Shyama Prasad RURBAN Mission.

A provision of Rs 200 crore has been proposed for the Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana and Rs 5,000 crore for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).

A budgetary provision of Rs 600 crore has been proposed for the industrial development policy-2012 and Rs 500 crore for the new industrial policy.

A Rs 650-crore allocation has been proposed for initial work on the Bundelkhand Expressway Project and Rs 550 crore for the Gorakhpur Link Expressway Project. Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated for the construction of the Poorvanchal Expressway and Rs 250 crore for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Corridor Regional Rapid Transit System Project.

Coming to health care, the government has proposed to upgrade four medical colleges — Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Meerut — to super-specialty centres at an estimated cost of Rs 1,265 crore.

A budgetary provision of Rs 29,883 crore has been proposed for various energy sector schemes and a target has been set for solar energy projects of 10,700 MW by the year 2022.

On the social security front, the Finance Minister proposed a budgetary allocation of Rs 2,560 crore under the “Old Age and Kisan Pension Scheme” for eligible persons over 60 years of age from all sections.

A provision of Rs 2,757 crore has been proposed for minorities development and welfare schemes in the state, and Rs 404 crore for the modernisation scheme for Arabi-Farsi Madarsas, besides Rs 486-crore for grant to Arabic schools.

IANS