UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Wednesday said that Rs 64,000 crore has been allocated in the state’s Budget to fulfill the promises made in the BJP’s manifesto in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference after tabling of the Budget in the Assembly by Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, the CM said that out of the 130 promises made, 110 have been incorporated in the budget. “Before the 2022 Assembly polls, our party made promises to people through Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra. If you see the Budget, you will see thatRs 64,000 crore has been dedicated to the promises made in the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra and allocations have been made in the Budget for them,” he said.
Adityanath pointed out that no new tax has been imposed and the prices of petrol and diesel in the state are lowest because of tax exemptions. Both the Finance Minister and the CM claimed that unemployment rate has drastically come down in the state in the past six years.
Adityanath said exports from the state rose to over 1.60 lakh crore from over Rs 86 lakh crore in 2017-18, and the state’s GDP and per capita income “doubled”. Stating that his government ensured ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayas’ (together, everyone’s development, trust and effort) in the past six years, he said his government’s first budget in 2017 was dedicated to farmers, budget in 2018 for infrastructure and industrial development, 2019 for women empowerment, 2020 for youth power, employment and infrastructure development, 2021 for self-reliance and empowerment, 2022 ‘from antyoday’ to ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliance).
Providing free electricity to farmers for irrigation for the next five years was among the promises made in the poll manifesto.
“In the last financial year, a 50 per cent discount was given on electricity bills of private tubewell consumers.
It has been raised to 100 percent in the 2023–2024 financial year with a provision of Rs 1,500 crore,” reads the document with details of the Budget.
Other promises made in the manifesto included increase of financial help for girl child under the CM Kanya Sumangala Yojana. In the Budget, provision of Rs 1,050 crore has been proposed under the scheme. In the Budget, an amount of Rs 600 crore has been allocated for the CM mass marriage programme. A help of Rs 1 lakh was promised in the manifesto under the scheme.