The UP government tabled its second Supplementary Budget for 2019-20 fiscal on the inaugural day of the legislature’s Winter Session on Tuesday. The budget amounting to more than Rs 4,210 crore includes Central grants component worth nearly Rs 330 crore.
The Finance Bill for the second supplementary grants was tabled by Finance Minister Suresh Khanna. After tabling the bill, Khanna said that the second supplementary would be financed from tax and non-tax revenue sources and cut down on ‘non-productive’ expenditure.
Together with UP’s Annual Budget and first Supplementary Budget tabled in Assembly on February 7 and July 23, 2019 totalling Rs 4.79 lakh crore and Rs 13,595 crore respectively, and today’s supplementary of Rs 4,210 crore, the state’s budget has touched Rs 4.96 lakh crore, a little shy of the Rs 5 trillion mark as expected earlier.
Meanwhile, the second supplementary allocated a sum of more than Rs 1,700 crore to Industries department for various ongoing and proposed infrastructure projects. Besdies, a total of Rs 960 crore has been given to UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) for prepayment of loan sourced from HUDCO for ongoing Purvanchal Expressway.
Besides, Rs 500 crore and Rs 200 crore have been allocated for the construction of Purvanchal Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway, respectively.
Apart from this, Rs 86 crore were provided for the forthcoming 11th National Defence Expo in Lucknow on February 5-8, 2020. The function will be hosted by the state government for the first time.
Besides, Rs 23 crore were allocated for treatment and disposal of chromium waste in industrial enclave of Rania in Kanpur Dehat.
The supplementary further provided Rs 30 crore for setting up of a zoological garden in Gorakhpur — Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s bastion. Apart from this, Rs 1,000 crore were provided to Energy department towards completion of different projects and settlement of sundry liabilities.
Given the tough stance taken by the Supreme Court (SC) and National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the issue of environmental pollution emanating from burning of stubble in some northern states, including UP, the Yogi government proposed to provide Rs 25 crore towards management of stubble in National Capital Region (NCR).
Meanwhile, the Supplementary Budget proposed an allocation of Rs 130 crore for setting up of Atal Boarding Schools in UP. With the Yogi government set to complete three years in office in March 2020 and the ruling BJP already pulling up socks for 2022 Assembly polls, the budget of Rs 50 crore was allocated for Information department for publicity purposes.