Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Wednesday, said that the poor, deprived, disadvantaged and farmers were the focus of the annual budget of 2023-24 presented in the assembly on February 22.
Replying to the debate in the state assembly on the annual budget of 2023-24, Yogi Adityanath said, “The leader of opposition was very pleased as he lampooned the achievements of the state. It is common knowledge why UP was on top from bottom before 2017. There are two ways to fix the issue — ‘Bhaag lo ya phir bhaag lo’ (Either join the battle and face the challenge or run away).”
“Either accept the issues as a challenge and work to resolve them like our government has done in the past six years, or ‘run away’ like the seat of the leader of the opposition is ‘vacant’ right now.” The chief minister said.
He thanked all the 134 members who took part in the debate on the budget and also countered the charges levelled by leader of opposition Akhilesh Yadav.
“The leader of opposition advised me that had I gone to the world economic forum meeting at Davos, then UP would have received investment of Rs 50 lakh crore, This shows he also believes that UP has received investment proposals worth Rs 33,50 lakh crore,” the chief minister said.
“The investment proposals of Rs 33.50 lakh crore are a reflection of the public's trust in the government and political credibility enjoyed by the government. Why didn't the investment proposals of this size come before 2017? The people of the state and the world would not have forgotten the incident of 2013, when the then chief minister had gone to Harvard for a presentation on Kumbh Mela and ‘chachajan’ (Mohammad Azam Khan, the then urban development minister) had to go through frisking at the airport. Where did we take the state? Results would have been different if there had been an effort to advance UP in any one field.”
Lauding the budget of 2023-24, the chief minister said, “Provisions have been made in the budget for fulfilling the promises made in the 2022 UP assembly election manifesto. The Bharatiya Janata Party had made 130 `sankalp’ in its election manifesto -- Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra. Provision has been made in the budget for 110 out of 130 sankalps and Rs 64,700 crore has been allocated. This amount has been arranged for the poor, farmers, youth and women.”
Taking a dig at the Samajwadi Party, the chief minister said: “Earlier you used to issue manifestos. Despite major announcements, nothing happened. In 2016, you had announced to give one crore each to Rio de Janeiro Olympics players, including PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar. On January 26, 2018, we honoured the promise made by the Samajwadi Party government.”
Referring to the efficient financial administration, the chief minister said, “My government plugged all loopholes and checked tax evasion leading to hike in state’s own tax revenue to Rs 1.24 lakh crore in 2022-23 which was only Rs 86,000 crore.” He charged that the SP government had handed over the liquor vends in the state to mafia gangs and revenue was only Rs 12,000 crore in 2016-17 which had increased to Rs 45,000 crore in 2022-23.
“Who benefitted from the massive tax evasion? Who was the beneficiary? Aise he koi England mein hotel aur Australia mein tapu (island) thode na khareeda jaa raha hai,” he added.
Yogi pointed out: “Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) suffered a loss of Rs 642 crore till 2016, but after that, it made profit.
The chief minister said during the last six years of the Bharatiya Janata Party rule the size of UP's budget had more than doubled. The budget, which was of Rs 3.40 thousand crores in 2016-17 had increased to Rs 6.90 lakh crore. It represents the expansion of UP's economy. It represents growth progress in GDP (gross domestic product), and growth in per capita income, he pointed out.