With farmers accounting for a significant chunk of the electorate, the budget has made special provisions for the agriculture sector.
With an eye on 2017 Assembly poll, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday presented a Rs 3,46,935-crore budget for 2016-17, reeling off a string of populist measures. The budget, Yadav's fifth, shows an increase of 14.6 % over the last year's allocation.
A sum of Rs 13,842 crore has been earmarked for new schemes, with focus on agriculture, health and education.
Describing the budget as "balanced and development oriented", Yadav told reporters that the SP government has been successful in fulfilling its promises through various welfare schemes and earlier budgets. He also said that while infrastructure has improved, the challenge is to provide relief to farmers and employment to the youth.
However, the Opposition termed the budget as "disappointing, anti-farmer and anti-people".
The budget estimates total expenditure at Rs 3,46,934.8 crore and receipts at Rs 3,40,120.6 crore. The fiscal deficit has been estimated at Rs 49,960.9 crore, 4.04 % of the state's GDP. This includes bonds of Rs 13,303 crore issued under the financial reorganisation scheme of 'Uday' for power companies.
Excluding this, the fiscal deficit is pegged at Rs 36,657.9 crore, which is 2.97 % of the state GDP.
With farmers accounting for a significant chunk of the electorate, the budget has made special provisions for the agriculture sector.
A provision of Rs 1,336 crore has been made for payment of cane price arrears to farmers, Rs 897 crore for the proposed 'Samajwadi Kisan evam Sarvahit Insurance Scheme', Rs 240 crore for farmer accident insurance scheme and Rs 50 crore for 'Aam Aadmi Insurance Scheme'.
For relief works under the state disaster fund, Rs 709 crore has been proposed, and an action plan of Rs 2,057 crore has been prepared to offset losses in 50 drought-hit districts.
A target to distribute crop loan totaling Rs 93,212 crore for fertilisers and seeds has been set, besides a provision of Rs 450 crore for the crop insurance plan. The budget has also set a target of producing 660 lakh mt of foodgrains and 14 lakh mt oilseeds.
A provision of Rs 787 crore has been made under the National Agricultural Development Scheme. The annual document has provided Rs 400 crore for setting up new dairy plants with a target to produce 362 lakh mt of milk. It's looking at creating jobs for 60,000 persons through fisheries and intends to cover 2.05 lakh members of fishermen societies under the Fishermen Insurance Scheme based on free premium.
A target has been drawn up to reclaim 1.3 lakh hectares of sodic land under the sodic reclamation-third projects. It has also been proposed to construct a potato market at a cost of Rs 102 crore in Kannauj and a mango market at a cost of Rs 79 crore in Malihabad.
A provision of Rs 320 crore has been made for various schemes of horticulture development and food processing and their implementation.
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