By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 18 Mar: BJP has decided to hold a series of media interactions on the state budget 2023-24. In this respect, the first press conference was organised at BJP State Headquarters here today which was addressed by Haridwar MP and former Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. He claimed that the provisions made in the budget show that under the leadership of Chief Minister Dhami, the government is moving decisively on the path of becoming a leading state by 2025. Nishank claimed that the budget is based on the concept of Prime Minister Modi’s basic mantra, ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, ‘Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’.
He said, this budget of the BJP government is going to increase the pace of development in the state and will fulfil the people’s aspirations. It will lead to a stronger Uttarakhand@2025. The Haridwar MP who has himself also handled the responsibility of Finance Minister in the past further asserted that with an increase of 18.05 percent in the size of the budget, a record sized budget of Rs 77,407 crores has been brought in by the state government. It is also a revenue surplus budget of Rs 4,309 crores. Nishank said that the total income from own resources also shows a net increase of 18.44 percent to Rs 24,744 crores. Uttarakhand has now become a faster growing economy with efficient financial management. Discussing the nuances of the budget in detail, he claimed that the budget is balanced, inclusive and is aimed at reaching out to all sections of the society. He added that special attention has been paid to providing better education and employment to the youth, while agriculture, horticulture, rural development, health, tourism and infrastructure have also been given importance.
Nishank said that a provision of Rs 10,459 crore has been made for education, sports and youth welfare. A provision of Rs 4,217.87 crore has been made for the Health Sector under which apart from providing better health facilities to improve the health of the people of the state, an amount of Rs 400 crore has been kept for Atal Ayushman, Rs 400 crore for construction of medical college and nursing college and Rs 772 crore for National Health Mission Scheme. A provision of Rs 3,272 crore has been made for the Rural Department to change the picture of the villages. An allocation of Rs 2,525 crore for drinking water, housing, city development, in which about Rs 351 crore have been set aside for basic and social schemes related to Smart City, Rs 319 crore for PM Awas Yojana, Rs 227 crore for schemes under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Even slum rehabilitation has been taken care of by allocating Rs 25 crore for slum rehabilitation.
The former Chief Minister informed that a provision of Rs 2,791 crore has been made for PWD, in which Rs 850 croresm has been given allocated for the development of roads, which is an increase of 97 percent over that of last year. Apart from this, Rs 1,443 crore for irrigation, Rs 100 crore for Song river dam for drinking water supply in Dehradun, Rs 1,294 crore for agriculture sector, in which construction of 50 thousand poly houses, promotion of Kiwi dragon fruit, promotion of coarse grains through State Millet Scheme have been given special focus.
Nishank said taking special care of the disaster victims has been taken with a provision of Rs 1,000 crore for Joshimath disaster affected. Nishank claimed that quick relief will be provided to the people in Joshimath and other natural calamities. Recovery of loans has also been stopped from disaster affected families for a period of one year. A provision of Rs 461.31 crore has been made for the Industries Department, in which Rs 100 crore has been made for Work Force Development, Rs 30 crore for Promotion of Investment Startups and Entrepreneurship Scheme, which will prove to be decisive in increasing employment in the state. Whereas an allocation of Rs 302.04 crore for development in the tourism sector will boost tourism. In this budget, special provision has been made for everything from cities to villages. Under which master drainage plan for Rishikesh Haridwar, Roorkee, Haldwani, Bhagwanpur, Almora, along with Rs 10 crore each to 12 municipal bodies, and Rs 2 crore each to Badrinath Kedarnath Gangotri unelected bodies as well as Rs 245 crore to district panchayats. 114 for area panchayats, 294 crore for gram panchayats, have been allocated.
While replying to the allegations of the Congress regarding the early end of the session, he claimed that the Congress does not even allow the House to function and keeps creating ruckus outside and later makes baseless allegations of early end. Whereas the proceedings of the House are conducted on the basis of the business approved by the Business Advisory Committee. He added that now no one takes Congress’s allegations seriously.
Party State General Secretary Aditya Kothari, State Vice President Mukesh Koli, State Media Incharge, Manveer Chauhan, State Spokespersons Suresh Joshi, Vinod Suyal, Virendra Bisht, Sunita Vidyarthi, co-media in-charge Rajendra Negi, Satyaveer Chauhan were also present in the press conference.
