UP Budget 2022: 4 Lakh Jobs, $1-Trillion GSDP, Focus on Women, Farmers; Know Major Highlights

As the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday tabled an over Rs 6.15-lakh-crore Budget in the state Assembly for 2022-23, the focus has been given to the youth, women and farmers. New schemes worth Rs 39,181.10 crore have been introduced in the Budget. This is the maiden budget of CM Yogi Adityanath’s second-term government. The state government had presented a Rs 5.50 lakh crore budget for 2021-22. Here’s are the major highlights of this year’s budget:

“The economy of the state is improving rapidly. We believe that we will be successful in taking the state’s economy to USD 1 trillion,” Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said while tabling the Budget.

Budgetary Provisions For Farmers

For farmers, the Budget proposed Rs 650 crore under the farmers’ accident scheme. There is a provision to provide a maximum of Rs 5 lakh in case of accidental death/disability under the scheme.

Khanna, who presented the budget in the Assembly, said almost 2.55 crore farmers have received funds in their bank accounts under the Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi. The scheme provides an annual income support of Rs 6,000 in three equal instalments.

He also informed that a record payment of Rs 1.71 lakh crore has so far been made to the sugarcane farmers in the state. Khanna said 15,000 solar pumps will be installed in the financial year 2022-23 and 60.20 lakh quintal seeds are proposed to be distributed to farmers. The budget has also set a target to distribute 119.30 lakh tonnes of fertilisers.

A ‘Bhamashah Bhav Stability Fund’ has been established in the budget to provide relief to farmers in the form of minimum support price for perishable crops like potato, tomato and onion

Mission Shakti Programme For Women

Launched in October 2020, the ‘Mission Shakti’ is the Uttar Pradesh government’s flagship programme which is aimed at promoting the security, dignity and empowerment of women. In this year’s budget, a provision of Rs 20 crore has been proposed under the scheme in the micro and small scale industries sector.

Budgetary Allocation For Youth

Khanna said that as per the BJP’s ‘Lok Kalyan Sankalp’ Patra, in the next five years, two crore smartphones/ tablets are to be distributed to the youth. A free tablet and smartphones scheme was started in December last year and till now, about 12 lakh tablets/ smartphones were distributed to them.

For Swami Vivekanand Youth Empowerment Scheme, Rs 1,500 crore has been proposed in the budget. To promote entrepreneurship and innovation in various fields among the youth, under the new UP Startup Policy-2020, a target is to establish a total of 100 incubators and 10,000 start-ups in the next five years, he said.

With the objective of providing coaching facilities to competitive students near their homes, the Chief Minister Abhyudaya Yojana has been implemented by the state government in all the divisional headquarters. The scheme is being expanded to all the districts of the state, a provision of Rs 30 crore is proposed for the scheme, the minister said.

Job Creation

The state’s finance minister said the government aims to provide four lakh jobs for the people in the coming 5 years. A budgetary allocation has been made for the Chief Minister’s Village Industries Employment Scheme, whose objective is to provide employment/ self-employment through individual financing by funding banks for the establishment of enterprises. For 2022-23, the target is to provide employment to 16,000 persons by establishing 800 units.

This apart, in secondary education, 40,402 teachers have been selected and 7,540 posts have been created by ending the interview in teacher selection. Khanna said about 10,000 posts for nurses have been created that will be filled in the coming years.

Under the MNREGA scheme, 26 crore man-days were created in the financial year 2021-22, and a target has been set to generate 32 crore man-days under the scheme in the financial year 2022-23.

Police Emergency Management System

The second phase of the 112 scheme will start this fiscal and for this, a provision of Rs 730.88 crore is proposed for its strengthening. For women, Khanna said, the budget has proposed setting up cyber help desks at the district level and a provision of Rs 72.50 crore has been made for the women empowerment scheme.
Budgetary Allocation for Sports

Khanna said a total of Rs 700 crore will be spent for the development of sports and to prepare players of excellent quality. The foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in the Meerut district was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 2 this year. A provision of Rs 50 crore is proposed for the establishment of the university, Khanna added. Another provision of Rs 95 crore is also proposed for land purchase for the establishment of an international cricket stadium in Varanasi.

Other Decisions

A provision of Rs 10 crore is proposed to provide financial assistance to young lawyers for purchasing books and magazines for the first three years of work. Two LPG cylinders free of cost to beneficiary families of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana have been given the place in the budget.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that in 2025, the world’s largest spiritual and cultural event will be held again in the form of Kumbh and the government is going to start its preparation from now on. “A separate provision has been made for this in the budget.”

(With Inputs From PTI)

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