LUCKNOW: The Government of Uttar Pradesh presented the state’s annual budget for the financial year 2023-24 on February 22, 2023. This was the second budget for the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath after he was re-elected as the CM last year.
With an approximate amount of ₹7 lakh crore, the annual budget focused on infrastructure development, welfare schemes, and empowerment of youths and women in the state.
In his budget speech, Suresh Khanna, Finance Minister, Government of Uttar Pradesh, highlighted the 16.8 per cent growth in the state’s GDP. He also mentioned that the unemployment rate in the state has decreased from 14.4 per cent in 2017 to 4.2 per cent at present.
The government allotted a budget of ₹21,159 crore for the development of infrastructure, apart from expressways, and proposed ₹6,209 crore for the maintenance of the existing ones.
For the initial stages of development of the Jhansi link expressway and Chitrakoot link expressway, ₹235 crore has been proposed, and ₹550 crore for the Bundelkhand expressway and Defence Corridor projects.
With a focus on the youth, the government proposed ₹3600 crore under the Swami Vivekanand Yuva Shashaktikaran scheme for distributing smartphones and tablets to students. In a way to encourage young entrepreneurs to set up agri-tech start-ups in rural areas, it proposed ₹20 crore for an Agriculture Accelerator Fund.
Under various welfare schemes, the finance minister proposed ₹12,631 crore for National Rural Health Mission, ₹1,655 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana, ₹25,350 crore for Jal Jivan Mission, and ₹2,288 crore for construction of 6.6 lakh toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission.
CM Adityanath referred to the state budget as the “Budget of new Uttar Pradesh” before it was presented to the Assembly and claimed that it will add “golden chapters” to the state’s history of social, economic, and cultural development.