Amid the ruckus and slogan shouting by the opposition members the UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who also holds the finance portfolio on Monday presented the highest ever supplementary budget for the current fiscal 2014-15 in the state assembly on Monday. This is the first supplementary budget sought by the government for the current fiscal 2015-16.
The size of the first supplementary is Rs 19,824.98 crore. For the last fiscal 2014-15 the highest supplementary budget was of Rs 14,000 crore. In the supplementary grants Rs 8,502 crore are under the plan head and Rs 11,322 crore under the non-plan.
As expected the lion share of the supplementary grants goes for the disaster head of the revenue department for compensating the farmers whose crops were damaged during the unseasonal rains in March-April. Over Rs 5,000 crore are proposed for the disaster relif which also includes the funds for the recoupment of the state contingency fund as the government had drawn heavily in April from this fund.
For clearing the dues of the sugarcane farmers Rs 1,529 crores are proposed to be given as financial assistance to the sugar mills. A soft loan of Rs 100 crore is also proposed for the UP cooperative sugar factories federation for payment of the arrears of the cane farmers. A loan of Rs 200 crore is proposed to be given to the cooperative sugar factory in Azamgarh for its expansion and installation of the cogeneration plant.
For the revival of the district cooperative banks, an important agency for the distribution of rural credit, a provision of Rs 565 crore has been made for the recapitalization of these banks in the supplementary budget. With the infusion of funds the RBI will restore the licenses of the sick banks. These banks were barred from conducting banking business as their net worth is in negative.
In the supplementary budgetary provisions infrastructure has been given priority, with Rs 200 crore earmarked for lucknow Metro project and Rs 220 crore set for the Greenfield lucknow-Agra Green expressway project.
The government has made a symbolic budgetary sanction of Rs 1,000 for the proposed lucknow-Ballia expressway and a same amount has been earmarked for the proposed optical fiber linking of 59,000 gram sabhas in the state under the Central sponsored scheme RsBharat Net. .
UP government has also sought Rs 220 crore for providing free irrigation to the farmers. Giving a religious tone to the budget, Rs 4 crore has been sought for setting up speakers for bhajans on the river banks of Ayodhya and Chitrakoot while Rs 3 crore have been sought s for the Samajwadi Shravan Yatra in which old age people are taken free of cost to pilgrimage. Besides, the Sindhi pilgrims going to leh-ladakh would be given Rs 10,000 each for which the government has demanded Rs 10 lakh in the supplementary budget.
The state government has sought Rs 45 crore to set up three sainik schools in Jhansi, Amethi and Manipuri while Rs 15 crore has been demanded for a stadium in Saifai, the native village of Chief Minister. The government has also demanded Rs 10 crore for paying the hiked wages and allowances of the legislators.