New Delhi: Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday tabled the state's budget for 2023-24 in the assembly. It is the first full budget of the AAP government.
The Punjab government will soon come out with a new agriculture policy for which a committee of experts has been formed, he informed.
The AAP government proposed a total Budget Expenditure of Rs 1,96,462 crore for FY 2023-24, 26% more than FY 2022-23.
The estimate of Revenue Expenditure was placed at Rs 1,23,441 crore i.e. an incremental growth of 14% over FY 2022-23.
- Addressing the Punjab assembly in Chandigarh, Harpal Cheema said that education and health sectors are among the priority sectors for the government, news agency PTI reported.
- He proposed an outlay of Rs 17,072 crore for school and higher education, 12% higher than the previous year.
- The Punjab government allocated Rs 13,888 crore to agriculture for FY 2023-24 i.e. 20% more than last year. It has proposed an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for crop diversification. This includes Basmati procurement, a 33% subsidy on cotton seeds, and a track and trace mechanism for ensuring quality seeds to farmers.
- An allocation of Rs 4,781 crore was made for Health and Family Welfare, 11% higher than the previous year 2022-23(RE).
- For the maintenance of law and order, the Finance Minister proposed an allocation of Rs 10,523 crore, up by 11% over the previous year. Some evil forces are always looking for opportunities to disturb peace, state government warns them to fall in line, he said, as per PTI.
- Rs 125 crore was allocated for the Direct Seeding of Rice and Procurement of Moongi at MSP. For the first time, Moong crop procured at MSP, benefitting 20,898 farmers and 79 crores transferred, the state government claimed.
- The government has earmarked Rs 9,331 crore for free electricity to farmers. To save farmers from the vagaries of the weather and other uncertainties, it also promised to provide Crop Insurance.
- The AAP government said it identified 117 schools for degradation. Rs 200 crore was allocated for the same.
- More allocations for school education include Mid Day Meal to 16.35 lakh students - Rs 456 crore, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan - Rs 1,425 crore, uniforms to pre-primary class students - Rs 25 crore; free books, repair, and maintenance of school Rs 90 crore.
- Cheema announced an allocation of Rs 1,015 crore in FY 2023-24 for Medical Education and Research. He informed that two new Medical Colleges of 100 MBBS seats each at Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur built at a cost of Rs 422 crore and Rs 412 crore respectively will be operational soon.
- Trauma Centre at Government Medical College, Amritsar and at Rajendra Hospital, Patiala to be set up at a cost of Rs 100 crores.
- Rs 990 crore has been allocated for providing assistance to the various Universities and constituent colleges including Punjabi University - Patiala, PAU, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur State University of Law, Punjab University - Chandigarh, and others.
- Cheema mentioned that 26,797 jobs have been given so far by the Bhagwant Mann government.
After coming to power in March 2022, the AAP government first passed a vote-on account on March 22 and then it presented its budget in June for the remaining part of the year.
The Budget session in Punjab has recently seen unruly scenes after AAP ministers and Congress MLAs exchanged heated arguments over the issue of pruning of security cover of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala who was brutally murdered last year.
Following a war of words with the Aam Aadmi Party members, the Congress MLAs walked out of the House on Thursday.
Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala, was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29 last year.
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