Chief Minister Raman Singh on Tuesday said in the Chhattisgarh Assembly that the Budget is not only a statement of income and expenditure but the document shows the progress of State. He said that the lives of farmers had improved markedly during the past decade due to the efforts of the State Government.
The Chief Minister said that many steps were taken to lessen the burden of investment in agriculture on the part of farmers. The authorities have made the farmers debt-free. Separate Farm Budget is presented for the past three years. Several schemes were launched to improve the agriculture sector.
The Chief Minister was replying on the floor of the House during the general discussion on 2015-16 Budget. The growth rate of Chhattisgarh is 13.20 per cent while the national growth rate is about 11.59 per cent, he said.
Singh said that the State had tried to meet the basic requirements of the masses. The First Five-Year Plan focused on the infrastructure development and the Second Five-Year Plan on Human Resources development.
The Per Capita Income has risen from Rs 18,559 to Rs 64,442 during the past decade. The State Government has invested about Rs 25,000 crore in agriculture during the last ten years, he said. About Rs 8,000 was spent on each farmer. The agriculture growth rate in Chhattisgarh is 7.8 per cent which is higher than the national average of 3.2 per cent per year, Singh said.
The Chief Minister while referring to the Food and Nutrition Security said that the State was spending 30 per cent more than in 2006-07. The amount spent in 2014-15 is Rs 4396 crore. The amount spent on the purchase of paddy from farmers has increased by four-fold.
The remuneration paid to farmers on the purchase of paddy has increased seven-fold. About Rs 40,000 crore had been spent on infrastructure during the past decade. About Rs 20,000 crore had been spent on laying and improving roads of 22,500 kilometers length. About Rs 16,000 crore had been spent on irrigation facilities to two-and-a-half lakh hectares of land.
There is a marked improvement in the lives of citizens in the entire State. Chhattisgarh is the first State to present Youth Budget catering to the fifty per cent of the population. The first General Budget was about Rs Rs 10,200 crore had now increased to Rs 65,000 crore.
The Chief Minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accepting 14th Finance Commission recommendations and increasing the State’s revenue share by ten per cent. He referred to Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Swachh Bharat’ yojana, and said that Chhattisgarh will implement them with full vigour.
There is a marked decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR). Apart from Agriculture sector, manufacturing and service sectors are also being given equal importance in the State, Singh said.
The Chief Minister said that the GDP is expected to touch Rs 2,10,192 crore in 2014-15. The estimated agriculture growth rate is likely to be 14.18 per cent, Industrial growth rate 10.62 per cent and services growth rate to be 15.21 per cent. The State has invested a lot in the social services sector during the past ten years, he said.