Punjab Government on Friday brought down the retirement age of the Government employees from 60 to 58 while not imposing any new taxes in Rs  1.54 lakh crore please-all budget. With this, the Government intends to early throw open the doors of Government service for the state’s unemployed youth doing away with the extension policy.

Announcing other decisions related to the State’s employees while presenting the Budget estimates for 2020-21, the Finance Minister Manpreet Badal announced six percent dearness allowance (DA) from March, to be paid by next week, besides implementation of the sixth Pay Commission recommendations in 2020-21 earmarking Rs 4,000 crore for the same.

In an apparent reaction to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) victory in Delhi elections, Manpreet also made maximum allocation to the education (Rs  13,092 crore) and health (Rs  4,675 crore) sectors while announcing free education for all government school students up to Class XII, free transportation facility for students, setting up intensive care units (ICUs) in all district hospitals, new medical colleges at Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur, new law university at Tarn Taran, among other things.

With just about two years to elections, Manpreet also made clear the government’s intention to woo the Scheduled Caste (SC) population in the State by upgrading the villages dominated by them, setting aside Rs 10 crore for the purpose.

Making it clear that the state government’s much-hyped debt waiver scheme would continue, Manpreet allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the next phase “including Rs 520 crore specifically for waiving off the loans of landless and farm workers during 2020-21”.

He also announced to bring down the ‘mandi fee’ — levied on the sale and purchase of agriculture produce — on fruits and vegetables from four to one percent to check the irregular and unauthorized activities.

Besides, Manpreet also announced to waive the Change of Land Use (CLU) charges for two years to set up a project outside the municipal limits.

FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE

Allocating whopping Rs  12,526 crore for agriculture and allies sector with major share of Rs 8,275 crore for power subsidy, Manpreet announced to set up two agricultural colleges at Gurdaspur and Balachaur with initial allocation of Rs 14 crore, Rs 40 crore for extending ‘Paani Bachao Paise Kamao Scheme’ to cover 244 feeders and set up demo farms for motivating farmersto adopt the scheme, installing 12,000 solar pumps in next three years, besides solarization of 11 KV Nathu Chahal agriculture feeder under Kala Sanghia sub-division, Kapurthala, by installing individual solar pumps.

Besides, Rs 200 crore has been allocated for agriculture diversification with special focus on maize, and Rs 10 crore to set up Agricultural Marketing Innovation Research and Intelligence Centre (AMIRIC) at Mohali (SAS Nagar).

The government has set aside Rs 100 crore to provide support to sugarcane growers, besides Rs 50 crore for the modernization of Gurdaspur and Batala sugar mills.

10 LAKH SMARTPHONES

He also announced to distribute 10 lakh smart phones to young people under the “Free Smart Mobile Phones to the Youth” scheme, allocating Rs 100 crore for the same. “We made fun when of Chief Minister’s statement that day…but it is true that the supply of smart phones has been halted by the bidder company due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. We expect the delivery of smart phones to start from April 2020 onwards,” he said.

PROMOTING INDUSTRY

For promotion of industry, Manpreet announced to develop three mega Industrial Parks over 1000 acre each with state-of-art industrial infrastructure “to cater to the demands of the industry”.

“Ludhiana industrial park with special emphasis on textile industry will be developed near Mattewara, Ludhiana. An industrial park with special emphasis on green industry will be developed in Bathinda. Similarly, an Integrated Manufacturing Cluster shall be developed on Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor near Rajpura,” he announced.

“In addition, on the request of the panchayat of Wazirabad, Fatehgarh Sahib District, an industrial park with special emphasis on pharmaceutical units shall be developed in an area of 125 acres. The development of these parks will not only help industrialization but will also give a strong push to the efforts of the Government for planned development in the State,” he said.

An allocation of Rs 22 crore has been made for up-gradation of industrial infrastructure at Ludhiana Phase-IV, Jalandhar (Old and Expansion), Bathinda (New) and Mandi Gobindgarh under Integrated Infrastructure Development Scheme, besides rs 131 crore for infrastructure upgradation of industrial focal points at Pathankot, Amritsar (New), Goindwal Sahib and Chanalon, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, Batala, Kotkapura, Nabha (Old), Moga, Sangrur, Khanna and Derabassi.

Announcing that efforts would be made to cover all types of industries to provide incentives, Manpreet announced Rs 2,267 crore for providing industrial power subsidy during 2020-21, pointing that the decision has resulted in 16.92 percent increase in industrial consumption over 2016-17.

 NEW SCHEMES FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

For women empowerment, Manpreet announced two new schemes — Kasturba Gandhi Mahila Yojana and Mata Tripta Mahila Yojana. While Kasturba Gandhi, an umbrella scheme, would converge benefits under all existing women-centric government schemes being run by various departments, Mata Tripta scheme would take new initiatives or programmes to cover aspects which have hitherto remained uncovered or were partially covered under any existing centrally or state sponsored women or girl child-oriented schemes.

MOUNTING DEBT

In his budget speech, Manpreet informed that the state’s debt will increase from Rs  2.29 lakh crore by the end of 2019-20, to 2.48 lakh crore by the end of 2020-21.

On the fiscal roadmap, he said. “We will soldier on. We are aware of the economic slowdown in the country. However, given the composition of the economy, our advanced estimates indicate that during 2019-20, the GSDP of the state has increased from Rs 5.21 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 5.74 crore at current prices. I’m hopeful that as a result of the progressive policies of the Government, the state’s GSDP during 2020-21 will further rise to Rs 6.44 crore. The per capita income of the state has  increased from Rs 1.54 lakh in 2018-19 to Rs 1.66 lakh in 2019-20.