Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jagdish Devda presented budget for 2021-2022. It was the first paperless, digital budget. No new tax has been proposed. Nor any tax has been hiked.
The two lakh 41 thousand 27 crore rupee budget is being described as a step towards making the state self-reliant. Finance Minister Devda presented the budget in the Assembly, saying that the Budget has been made keeping all sections of society in mind. The emphasis in the Budget is on health, education, medicine, roads, employment, drinking water, etc.
The budget highlights are as follows. Following sums have been allocated to the departments, sectors.
1. Nal Jal Yojana, Samuh Nal Jal Yojana – Rs 8,000 crore
2. Water resources department – Rs 6,434 crore
3. PWD - Rs 7,342 crore
4. Narmada valley development- Rs 2,413 crore
5. Schools’ development - Rs 1,500 crore. 350 schools to be opened.
6. 24,000 teachers to be recruited
7. 105 railway overbridges provisioned
8. 9 new medical colleges proposed
9. Bhopal-Indore metro – Rs 262 crore
10. 4,500 MW solar plants in offing
11. 3,250 medical seats to be increased from 2021-2023
12. 9,200 schools to have all facilities
13. Chhatarpur Jatashankar Ropeway on anvil
Kamal Nath condemns: Reacting to the Budget, Congress leader and former CM Kamal Nath described it as 'a pack of lies'.
"The Budget that the Madhya Pradesh government presented today is a pack of lies. It is directionless, hopeless and just a maze of data. It was expected that in this Budget, the government would reduce VAT to provide relief to the public from petrol-diesel prices and the Congress government's farm loan waiver scheme would be carried forward. There would be a concrete action plan on new employment opportunities, education and health. Besides giving DA and DR to government employees, effective measures should have been provided to to provide relief to industry in view of the Corona pandemic. But all this is missing in the document."
He further said, "Surprisingly, the BJP government, which is in power for 15 years, is still talking about providing tap water to every household. Even after 15 years, besides showing false dreams of development, nothing has been done for farmers, the youth, generating employment or taking concrete measures to increase the per capita income of the residents of the state. Contrary to the expectations of the people, there is nothing new in this budget."
(Inputs from IANS)
