Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the 2017-18 budget would usher in a new era of development in Uttar Pradesh. He said that the budget has taken care of all sections of the society with priority on the poor, farmers, youth and women, basing its focus on Prime Ministers Narendra Modi’s slogan of `Sab kaa saath, sab kaa vikas’. Addressing a press conference after the budget, Yogi said that the budget was focused on infrastructure development for ensuring double digit growth of the state’s economy. “We would ensure rapid development of the state to make it a front line state of India in all indeices of development,’’ said the Chief Minister. Yogi said that the financial outlay for all schemes and projects related to infrastructure development have been increased. He said that the allocation for Prime Minister Rural Garmin Sadak scheme has been doubled to Rs 3,000 crores while Rs 4,500 crore have been provided for PM Awas Yojna which was only Rs 3,100 crores in the last fiscal. The CM highlighted that Rs 2100 crores have been provided for rural employment scheme, Rs 900 crores for livelihood mission against Rs 70 crores last year and Rs 3,200 crores for Swacch Bharat Mission against Rs 1,500 crores in 2016-17. Yogi said that Rs 300 crores have been earmarked for distributing shoes, socks and sweater to students of primary and senior primary government schools while Rs 100 crores have been given for distributing free school bags to them. “Besides, Rs 123.96 crores would be given for distribution of free uniform and books to primary students while Rs 21.12 crores has been sanctioned for free education up to graduate level to all girls under Ahilyabai Free Education scheme,” said the Chief Minister. Yogi said that Rs 288 crores has been given for Metro projects in some cities, Rs 300 crores for Poorwanchal and Rs 200 crores for Bundelkhand special schemes, Rs 50 crore for setting up UP State Road Development Corporation and Rs 30 crores for Deen Dayal Upadhaya Solar street light scheme. The Chief Minister said that the government has given Rs 2000 crores for Amrut Scheme, Rs 1500 crores for Smart City mission and Rs 550 crores for the welfare of the specially-abled. Yogi said that for scholarship to backward students, Rs 324 crore havebeen set aside in the budget, Rs 682 crores for general category students, Rs 950 crores for students of SC and ST community and Rs 941 crore for minority community students. The CM said that Rs 9 crores have been sanctioned for setting up of Deen Dayal Upadhaya research units in all state universities while Rs 25 crores would be given for running 166 Deen Dayal Upadhaya government model schools. Yogi announced that two sugar mills at Pipraich (Gorakhpur) and Munderwa (Azamgarh) would be restarted and several old mills would be modernized and expanded. Besides Rs 3972 crores have been given for repairing roads in the state. Principal Secretary, Finance, Anup Chandra Pandey said that the government will not float development bonds for mobilising additional resources to finance farm loan waiver. He also clarified that the scheme was not loan waiver but ‘loan redemption’. Paney said that the government would meet the additional burden on the state exchequer by curtailing government’s expenditure and introducing various austerity measures.