By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun 5 Feb: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that the Union Budget presented recently is all-encompassing and would ensure welfare of the poor and farmers of the country and make India a developed nation. He also claimed that the provision in the budget for food plan, agriculture, tourism and infrastructure would directly strengthen the development of Uttarakhand. Prasad was addressing the media at the BJP State Headquarters here today.
Prasad asserted that the budget of 2023-24 is beneficial and would ensure economic progress of the country. At the core of the budget is a blueprint for the uplift of women and the country’s poor and farmers as well as the youth. He said that there are mainly three essentials in the budget. Prasad said, “The budget is all-encompassing, all-touching, at the root of which is the welfare of the farmers and the poor of the country. The third point is the essence of the resolution to make India a developed nation and this essence is being seen with respect not only in the country but in the world. When the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi says something, it is achieved. Today the whole world is affected by the Ukraine-Russia war. Nevertheless, India is rapidly touching the heights of development by taking care of itself. The International Monetary Fund has said in its commentary that India’s growth rate is going to be 6.8.percent. India is the shining economy of the world. India’s growth rate is going to be around 7 percent.”
Prasad emphasised that a special focus on agriculture development is integral to this budget. For this, the credit provided of Rs 20 lakh crores is the highest ever. The start-up movement would be introduced in agriculture for greater use of technology. In other sectors, the number of start-ups has now reached 90,000. India is the world’s third power in start-ups; a 100 unicorns mean Rs 7000 crores.
The BJP MP expressed hope that the talented youth of Uttarakhand would be active in agriculture and take advantage of the start-up policy. He said that in the co-operative sector, a provision of Rs 63,000 crores has been made in the budget for digitalisation and other schemes, which would also benefit Uttarakhand. On this occasion, he praised the 100 percent digitisation of committees in the state.
Similarly, he reminded, a provision of Rs 6,000 crores has been made for fisheries i.e. blue economy. A big provision has also been made for coarse grains i.e. food scheme. In particular, he said, Uttarakhand is going to get the maximum benefit of Modi’s goal of taking India’s millets to the world, because the economy of most of the small farmers here depended on the production of coarse grains like Mandua Jhingora and Ramdana.
Prasad said that a huge provision of Rs 10 lakh crores for infrastructure, Rs 2 lakh 40 thousand crores for railways had been made. Out of this, a provision of Rs 5004 crores in railways had been made for Uttarakhand alone, which included plans for developing Haridwar and Dehradun railway stations as model stations of international level, expansion of many stations including Harrawalan, etc. In the budget, 30 Skill India Digital Centres would be opened for the youth, due to which 47 lakh youth would get scholarships in the next 3 years. Nursing colleges would be opened in 150 medical colleges of the country. Under this, Uttarakhand would also get 3 to 4 nursing colleges. He also reminded that the exemption limit for Income Tax has been raised from Rs 5 to 7 lakhs now under the new Income Tax Regime.
Recalling the public welfare schemes of the Modi Government, he said that free food grains had been arranged for the country for the next one year to 80 crore people. As many as 220 crore vaccines were given to the eligible population across the country under the Make in India campaign and also exported to 80 countries. A large capital investment came to India despite many problems around the world. India is now second in the world in mobile manufacturing in the country. Today, there are 270 mobile phone factories, increasing from two mobile factories in 2014. The country’s economy is continuously getting strengthened under the leadership of the Prime Minister.
On the question of Uttarakhand not getting green bonus, he said that there is a plan to develop hydrogen energy worth Rs 35,000 crores in this budget. Himalayan states would get benefit once this scheme is notified. On Joshimath, he said that the government is working on the Himalayan policy. Joshimath is a big challenge, but the Dhami government is handling it adequately. The government is working at a fast pace for rehabilitation and restoration in Joshimath. The official policy of the Congress government was not to develop resources on the border so as not to anger China. However, now border areas are being rapidly developed.
Present on this occasion were BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt, Cabinet Ministers Prechchand Aggarwal, Dhan Singh Rawat, BJP’s State Media Incharge Manveer Singh Chauhan, BJP’s State Vice President Mukesh Koli, BJP’s State Treasurer Puneet Mittal, MLA Anil Nautiyal, State Co-Media Incharge Rajendra Negi, Manik Nidhi Sharma, Sanjeev Verma, State Spokesperson Vinod Suyal, Madhu Bhatt, Honey Pathak and other party officials.
