Chandigarh, March 21: Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the State Budget for the year 2022-23 is dedicated to Antyodaya and starting from those at the bottom of the pyramid is our utmost priority.
"Every eligible beneficiary would certainly get their due benefits, although, since the poor person has the first right on government, therefore, every possible effort would be made to ensure the reach of every welfare scheme firstly to them," said Sh. Manohar Lal.
"This is the reason why the State Budget 2022-23 presented by our government is more of a 'Farz' ka Budget than of ' Karz'. The Budget aims to uplift every needy person," said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister said this while replying to the discussion on Budget Estimates during the ongoing session of the Vidhan Sabha here today.
The Chief Minister said that in the last two years, due to COVID-19, the pace of development certainly was slowed down, but every possible effort was made by the present State Government to constantly maintain this development pace.
"A new initiative of holding the pre-budget meeting was started by our government under which valuable suggestions were sought from all the stakeholders before finalizing the Budget. Continuing this article, this time also consultation meetings were held with around 550 people and their valuable suggestions have been included in the Budget," said the Chief Minister.
He said that the committees constituted to discuss the budget demands have also shared their suggestions, most of which have been incorporated by the State Government.
"Committee-1 has suggested that a mechanism should be put in place for monitoring the Budget Estimates, which has been accepted by the government and an online mechanism will be developed by the Finance Department for the same. Similarly, Committee-2 has also recommended that an orientation programme should be started for the MLAs. Necessary arrangements will also be made for the same," shared Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that the Per Capita income term does not indicate the income per person rather it is only an accounting term, which gives the ratio of the GDP of a state to the per capita income.
Responding to the questions raised by the Opposition regarding the loan figures, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the Opposition should change their viewpoint whenever they talk about debt, as the debt increases over time, but economists and NITI Aayog assess healthy economic conditions as per the debit to GSDP ratio.
"According to this, the debt should not exceed 25 per cent of GSDP. Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic, the State's ratio is 24.98 per cent. Whereas in Punjab the same is 48 per cent," said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister said that the revenue deficit of Haryana is also less than 3 per cent.
"If we are doing capital expenditure by taking loans and promoting infrastructure, then it is a good thing because infrastructure is considered an investment with a perspective of a bright future. In this Budget, we have made a provision of capital expenditure of Rs 61,057.36 crore," said Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that in this year's Budget, the State Government has highlighted that loans of Rs 55000 crore have to be borrowed, within this amount Rs 14800 crores are also included for the procurement process and storage for the farmers. Hence, the loan amount comes to around Rs 40000 crore, out of which about Rs 20000 crores will be used for repayment of the loans.
The Chief Minister said that till the year 2017, all the loans were taken with a time limit of 10 years. From 2018 onwards, the present State Government have decreased this limit to 5 to 6 years and then to 7 years, so that the loan repayment can be done speedily.
"Our intention is to increase the capital expenditure by taking loans," said Sh. Manohar Lal.
Equity is our investment
The Chief Minister said that under the UDAY scheme, 75 percent of the losses of the power companies were taken up by the government and equity was issued for 25 percent.
"Equity is our investment because it helped in more creation of capital assets , which are considered good for the economic growth," said Sh. Manohar Lal.
New pension scheme was implemented during the time of Congress
The Chief Minister said that 15 years ago, on January 22, 2007, when Sh. Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the Chief Minister and Sh. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, a circular was issued in which it was decided to implement the New Pension Scheme.
He informed that under the new pension scheme, some share was deposited by the employee and some by the government, which forms a corpus fund from which pension is paid. In the year 2009, this scheme was started at a very small level and in that year an amount of Rs 21 crore were paid as arrears and Rs 12 crore were paid under the new pension scheme, informed Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that the old pension scheme were running separately. Thus, under the old pension scheme, an amount of Rs. 2390 crore was paid and under the new pension scheme an amount of Rs. 43 crore was paid. Whereas today, the old pension scheme and the new pension scheme together are bearing the burden of about Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 13,000 crore, he added.
He said that the Government of India has increased the Government's share from 10 per cent to 14 per cent under the New Pension Scheme, following which Haryana has also increased the government share from 10 per cent to 14 per cent with effect from January 2022. The share of employees is only 10 percent. The new pension scheme will continue, he added
Sh. Manohar Lal said that the present State Government is working with the spirit of Antodaya. Under Parivar Pehchan Patra, families having an annual income of less than Rs 1.80 lakh have been identified. Of these 29 percent belong to the Scheduled Castes and 35 percent to the Backward Classes, he added.
Sh. Manohar Lal said that the families belonging to Scheduled Castes or Backward Classes will continue to get their due benefits. The Government has increased the income limit of Rs 1.20 lakh for BPL to Rs 1.80 lakh, so that more and more families can come under BPL purview and can avail the benefit of all the welfare schemes, said Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that registration of marriage is necessary. Therefore, registration cannot be exempted. Now the State Government is going to make such arrangements under which it would be ensured that registration is done on the same day of marriage. After this there will be no delay in getting the Shagun amount, added Sh. Manohar Lal.
He said that an amount of Rs 383.11 crore has been proposed for the Housing for All Department. This is 104.7 percent higher than the revised estimates for the year 2021-22.
A survey of homeless people whose income is less than Rs 1.80 lakh per annum is being started. Action plan will be prepared in the financial year 2022-23 and after the actual survey number of beneficiaries who will be alloted houses will be, added Sh. Manohar Lal.
He said that the state government is also bringing new schemes in the field of irrigation. Allegations of Opposition regarding not making any budget provision for SYL are completely wrong as a provision of Rs.100 crore for the same has been made in the year 2022-23. Once the final decision on this issue comes, more money will be allocated for its construction, said Sh. Manohar Lal
The Chief Minister said that at present the demand for organic products is increasing. The price of these products is also very high in the market. Therefore a new programme on natural farming has been proposed in this budget.
To promote natural and organic farming, a three-year production based incentive programme will be started in 100 clusters with minimum 25 acres of land per cluster, said Sh. Manohar Lal.
He said that under this programme, financial incentives will be given for certification, branding and packaging and compensation for loss of production in the first three years.
I am sure that this programme will encourage farmers for organic farming, which will become a major source of increasing their income, said the Chief Minister.
He said that under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, an amount of Rs 1500 crore was paid by the farmers as premium, while they have received claims amounting to Rs 4729 crore.
The Chief Minister said that the budget for the academic session has also been increased this year, which is 17.6 percent more than last year. He said that in this budget, it has been proposed to increase the number of Model Sanskriti schools to 500.
"We have opened 115 new Model Sanskriti Schools so far. Together, the number of these schools has increased to 138. Computer education will be provided in Model Sanskriti schools from class V, onwards " said Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that in these schools, the government will not charge any fees from the children of families having an annual income of Rs 1.80 lakh.
The Chief Minister said that the tender for the purchase of 5 lakh tablets for the students studying in government schools has been allotted on November 23, 2021. Tablets with connectivity will be given to all the students of class 10th to 12th studying in government schools from the coming academic session, he added.
He said that a separate cadre has been created for teachers in Mewat region. To overcome the shortage of teachers in this region we have decided to fill up the vacant posts, said Sh. Manohar Lal.
Teachers will also be recruited on contract basis through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam. The government has decided to give 10 percent additional salary to the teachers working in the Mewat, informed the Chief Minister.
Sh. Manohar Lal said that continuous efforts are being made to meet the shortage of teachers in government schools. The demand letter for filling up the posts has been sent to the Haryana Staff Selection Commission, he added.
Similarly demand letters have been sent to Haryana Staff Selection Commission to fill 1,924 posts of T.G.T. and C & D teachers, he said.
He said that rationalization of teachers in government schools is being done so as to know the actual status of the teacher requirements.
If needed, we will also take services from retired teachers in schools having with shortage. If required, we will also appoint teachers on contract basis, said the Chief Minister.
He said that 207 acres 2 kanal 2 marla land has been identified through e-Bhoomi portal for setting up AIIMS in district Rewari. The process of buying land has been started. After purchase, it will be handed over to the Government of India. Apart from this, 3 government and 4 private new medical colleges have opened during the present state government's tenure.
At present there are 13 medical colleges. Of these, 6 are government, 6 private and one is government-aided.
As far as the education of the children who have returned from Ukraine is concerned, the State Government will make necessary arrangements for the children who have to undergo internship. Medical colleges in Ukraine have started online education for children.
The Chief Minister said that in this budget a state level award has been announced in the name of late Smt. Sushma Swaraj, daughter of Haryana.
"We propose to build working women hostel in Faridabad, Gurugram, and Panchkula to provide safe and affordable housing to working women in big cities, added Sh. Manohar Lal.
Three new government women's colleges will be opened at Kudal and Chhapar in district Bhiwani and Gannaur in district Sonipat so that girls can be provided ample education opportunities. To provide assistance to women entrepreneurs, a new scheme 'Haryana Matrishakti Udyami Yojana' was also announced, said the Chief Minister.
He further shared that under this scheme , a provision has been made to provide easy loans up to Rs 3 lakh to women belonging to families with an annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh to do start any enterprise, trade or business. Besides this, 7 percent interest subvention will be given on this loan for 3 years.
"We have set a target of setting up and supporting 10,000 Self Help Groups in the year 2022-23. In this, at least 50,000 women from poor families will get money for self employment," said Sh. Manohar Lal.
The Chief Minister said that the state government will bear the entire interest cost for self help groups where more than half of the members of these groups belong to families whose income is less than or equal to Rs. 1.80 lakh.
The Chief Minister said that provision has been made to extend the scheme of giving Rs. 5000 per beneficiary to the second child in the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana. He said that the state government is giving the highest honorarium to Anganwadi and Asha workers in the country and has fulfilled all their legitimate demands.
Sh. Manohar Lal said that the present state government have increased the amount of old age pension to Rs. 2500 per month and there are about 23000 such families who have not availed their pension benefits. All these families are being contacted and from March 31 their pension benefits would be given , through PPP. They will get the benefit of pension without application, he added.
He said that the State Government has made tireless efforts to promote sports and industries and in the budget of the year 2022-23, Rs. 540 have been allocated for sports.
Padma Scheme has also been started to promote Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under 1 Block One Product, said the Chief Minister.