Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna on Wednesday presented the state’s annual budget for the financial year 2023-24 and the second budget for ‘Yogi 2.0’. Khanna reported that a 16.8% growth in state GDP was recorded while the employment rate fell to 4.2%. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath chaired the state cabinet meeting to give his nod to the budget.
The annual budget of around ₹7 lakh crore expected to focus on infrastructure development, welfare schemes and youth and women empowerment in the state.
UP Budget 2023 is gaining importance and is an opportunity for the Yogi government to woo various sections of the society including youth, women, farmers and underprivileged classes etc. due to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April-May 2024. In a high level meeting recently, Yogi Adityanath hinted that the new budget will be in line with the aspirations of the people.
On May 26 last year, the state government presented an annual budget of ₹6.15 crore. On 5 December 2022, a supplementary budget of ₹33,769.55 crore was presented, increasing the total size of UP’s budget in 2022–2023 to ₹6.50 crore. An increase in expenditure of around 10% may see the annual budget for 2023–24 reach nearly ₹7 crore.
Here is key information about Uttar Pradesh budget 2023:
•Students: ₹ 3,600 crore allocated to provide tablets and smartphones to eligible students under the Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Scheme
•Women: ₹ 1,050 crore for the Chief Minister’s Kanya Sumangala Yojana, which offers financial assistance to guardians or parents of two girls in one family
₹ 4,032 crore for destitute widows
₹ 600 crore for the Samuhik Vivah scheme for the marriage of all girls of all classes
₹ 150 crore under marriage grant scheme for daughters of poor people belonging to other backward classes
•Infrastructure: An outlay of ₹ 21,159 crore was announced for construction of roads, bridges; ₹ 6,209 crore for maintenance
Khanna said ₹3,473 crore is proposed for bridge and road works for agricultural marketing facilities and ₹1,525 crore for roads in rural areas. While ₹1,700 crore is proposed for construction of railway bridges and ₹1,850 crore for other bridges, the budget proposed ₹2,588 crore for widening/strengthening and new works of state highways.
With religious tourism in mind, the budget proposed ₹1,000 crore for the development of “Dharmarth Marg” (road to religious places). The budget also proposed ₹3,000 crore for road maintenance and ₹2,500 crore for construction from the State Road Fund, Khanna said.
Provision of ₹100 crore for implementation of metro rail project in Varanasi, Gorakhpur and other cities. For the Gorakhpur Industrial Corridor to be set up near the Gorakhpur Link Expressway, the state government has proposed an outlay of ₹200 crore
₹ 1,306 crore earmarked for Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut Corridor Regional Rapid Transit Project
₹ 200 crore for Unity Mall, which sells One District One Product (ODOP).
•Health, Employment, Research: Budget measures of ₹ 7,248 crore proposed for Old Age/Farmer Pension Scheme; ₹1,120 cr for Divyang Pension Yojana
•₹12,631 crore expenditure on various programs under National Rural Health Mission, ₹400 crore for implementation of Ayushman Bharat
•₹ 20 crore for the State Pharmaceutical Research and Development Institute
•₹60 crores for IT and startup policies
Creation of 20 thousand jobs in next 5 years under UP Tourism Policy 2022 with investment target of ₹ 10 crore
Other highlights: ₹1,000 crore for construction of residential facilities for police officers
•₹10 crore allocated for purchase of vehicles by the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)
•₹850 crore earmarked for new police commissioners.
Written by : Vaishali Verma
