With the assembly elections Uttar Pradesh a few months away, the BJP government in the state presented a supplementary budget of Rs 7,301.52 crore on Wednesday, focusing on employment generation which will incur an additional expense.
The government also announced a hike in the salaries/honorariums of contractual workers like Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, gram chaukidars as well as Shikha mitras, who have been demanding a wage hike for a long time.
Introducing the supplementary budget, state finance minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said the focus is on extremely important issues of public welfare or fulfilling any particular scheme.
“There are some new demands in this, especially for creating job opportunities for the youth for which Rs 3,000 crore have been allocated. The other highlights are social security fund for advocates, improvement in the electricity system, construction of Ambedkar Smarak and Saanskritik Kendra, conservation of stray cattle and increasing the basic infrastructure in Ayodhya,” he said.
Stating that the supplementary budget was“only 1.33 per cent of the annual budget of Rs 5.5 lakh crore” presented by the government earlier this year, Khanna called for passing the budget without any discussion.
“In the span of four-and-a-half years of our government, the perception of the public has changed. The biggest parameter is the evaluation of any government, and the view of the public is that the Yogi Adityanath government in UP has made new records, and has also broken some records. Hence, I would like to urge the House through you (Speaker) to pass the 1.33 per cent supplementary budget without any discussion. It would be good.”
Subsequently, Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhary apparently taking a dig at Khanna, said the government has made new records, to which Khanna retorted,”This is true.” Further, pointing at Yogi Adityanath, Khanna said, “He is the Ram of politics, and he is sitting here to defeat the evil powers.” This prompted a loud desk-thumping by the members of the ruling party.