Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s first full budget consists of Gau, the Gita, Ram, Krishna, Ladli, Youth and Udyog. It is a blend of religion and development. Because of the Lok Sabha election, a supplementary budget was presented for four months last year. The actual budget was only for eight months.
This year the government presented a ‘no-negative budget’ in which an effort has been made to do a balancing act besides linking the Ladli Behna Yojna with pension and insurance schemes is an important step. The move has opened the door to assistance from the Central Government.
Keeping a provision for setting up a state-level insurance committee in the budget is an innovative idea. The ordinary people across the state have to face a lot of problems in getting their insurance claims. The cases pile up. So, the committee will work out all the cases for providing hassle-free insurance benefits. The provision for giving incentives to industries is another move in the right direction. Arrival of industries in the state is necessary for employment.
Similarly, setting up skill development centres like ITIs will help the youth. The budget has tried to infuse new blood into the state economy by making provisions for infrastructure, developing religious places, and for booting tourism. Another important aspect is that the government not only maintained the schemes launched by the Shivraj government but also announced several projects.
The employees expected the government to carry out old pension scheme and hike dearness allowance. They have to wait for DA. But taking a decision on OPS is out of the ambit of the BJP-led state governments, so the employees have to wait until the Central government takes a decision on the issue.
What the people of the state want is some relief on petrol and diesel rates, which the government may do by increasing tax on liquor. Nevertheless, because the budget is without such a provision, they may have to wait for some time for a decision on it.
