Minister for Public Relations, Water Resources and Parliamentary Affairs Narottam Mishra has described Budget of Madhya Pradesh, which was presented on Wednesday, as a “public welfare budget”. He mentioned that the provisions for education, health and irrigation specifically clarify that this Government is committed for the welfare of the people.
The Government led by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has focused this Budget on the welfare of the people. Attention has been paid on all the significant sectors in the Budget. This Budget will ensure welfare of the farmers and all other sections of the society, he said.
Mishra stated that a new irrigation capacity will be developed on 2.05 lakh hectare area in the State during 2018-19. Work of Bina and other projects will be started soon. According to the Budget, an amount of Rs10,928 crore will be spent on the expansion of irrigation area. A network of small and medium irrigation schemes will be laid in several districts for the prosperity of the farmers in the State. Seventy new small irrigation schemes have been included in the budget. There is a provision of Rs369 crore and Rs205 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Agriculture Irrigation Scheme and Watershed Development Scheme respectively.
These provisions will prove blessing for the farmers. Irrigation capacity on 11 lakh hectare has been developed in the state by completing 980 small irrigation schemes. Mishra further mentioned that as a result of constant good irrigation facility in the State, the agriculture income of the farmers will double in the coming years.
Besides, Mishra said that Madhya Pradesh has taken an important step by making an arrangement of additional sum of Rs200 per quintal for the farmers. Necessary arrangements have been made in the budget in this connection. There is a provision of plentiful amount in the budget for the development of villages. An amount of Rs9,278 crore has been earmarked in the budget for the schemes of Farmers Welfare Department, which is 87 per cent more than the revised estimate of 2017-18.