By Kulsum Mustafa
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, presented the Rs 5,12,860.72 crore, the fourth budget of his government in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday and claimed it was “biggest and historical budget,” The former chief minister and national president of Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav termed the budget as total “Jumleybaazi’.
While Yogi made his claim at the Press Conference at Tilak Hall, immediately after the Finance, Parliamentary Affairs minister, Suresh Kumar Khanna, presented the 2020-2021 budget in the House. Yadav’s reaction came at a press conference called at his Party Office later in the afternoon.
Yogi said that this budget is dedicated to youth and aims at improving education, raising the standards of skill development and providing more avenues of employment for the youth.
He said his party’s first budget 2017- 2018 was committed to the welfare of farmers while the second budget 2018-2019 had the state’s industrial development at its core and the 2019- 2020 was aimed at the overall empowerment of women.
BUDGET DEDICATED TO YOUTH
The budget lists the new schemes for youth which include the starting of Rs 100 crore Chief Minister Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme and Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhyan (YUVA) to link youth of the state to self-employment and employment. YUVA will be provided on the job training in MSME units and later link them with employment for a fixed period. Youth enrolled in this scheme will receive Rs 2500 as a stipend.
According to Yadav these claims of the chief minister are totally false and like the previous years, this year to nothing will be done. He alleged that Yogi’s welfare schemes are superfluous and fail to address the real issues plaguing the youth in the state.
The government has in its budget for the 23 crore UPites said that for the promotion of higher education they are going to set up three new state universities, there will be one each in Saharanpur, Azamgarh, and Aligarh. Besides this, the government will also set up Ayush University in Gorakhpur and a Law University in Pryagraj district.
Yadav said that these days the chief minister is projecting himself as techno-savvy and is even posing with I -pad in order to connect and impress youth. Unlike the BJP Yadav said his party has a genuine interest in the youth and in his term as chief minister had brought many welfare schemes for them aimed at empowering them.
“This government has no vision or roadmap,” alleged Yadav. He said the 2020-2021 budget cheats not just one but every section of people. He said that the government must first be questioned on how much it has delivered in the promises made in the last three budgets.
Achievements, if any, would have given some hope that the government will deliver the budget for 2020-2021. Otherwise this time too, the budget will be reduced to just a document of false promises and hopes.
Goli, boli ka chief minister
Lambasting the chief minister of running the state on “goli and boli” Yadav said that the budget cheats the people of the state and offers them hollow promises. He said Yogi is a chief minister who practices and encourages the culture of the “culture of goli and boli.” He wants to create a reign of terror, development of the state is not his concern.
Yadav said that while the farmers are committing suicides in the state due to poverty and non-payment of loans, they are also now troubled by the stray animals, especially the cows which are destroying their fields and crops.
The SP leader said Yogi would have done a great favor to the farmers if he had allocated some funds for fencing of the farmers’ fields and protecting them against these animals. He said the poor farmers have to spend a huge amount on providing wire fencing around their fields.
He ridiculed Yogi of being a cow devout but milk in the state is being imported to UP from Gujarat. Yadav said he also has news that soon the state will be getting to drink milk imported from the US. This he said is the state BJP’s way of promoting the state economy.
Highly critical of “Gaddha yukt (Potholes affected) roads in BJP rule, Yadav said that corruption is rampant in every department of the government, and road, PWD and transport departments have not been left untouched from this menace.
He alleged that contracts for major government schemes are given to select contractors and a blind eye is exercised for use of poor quality material, changes made in design required thickness in order to allow space for pilferage, He illustrated his claim with the example of the recent roof collapse of a toilet constructed under the PM flagship program for public toilets.
Yadav said that unlike the Yogi government the SP had during its tenure had invested heavily in good roads, metro, and Expressways and that he said is the magic mantra because good transport helps to “double the speed and triple the economy.”
BJP IS EXPERT IN RENAMING GAME
The government in its budget allocation on Expressway and airports had listed its decision to Construct
*Ballia Expressway: Link Ballia with 91 km long Gorakhpur Link Expressway with Proorvanchal Expressway.
*Ganga Expressway: Rs 2000 crore, 637 km this Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj. is said to be the longest in the country.
* Rs 500 crores have been provided for Ayodhya airport, Rs 92.50 crores have been earmarked for airports under the Regional Connectivity Scheme.
Asserting that almost nil development has been done by the BJP government in its term on Expressways and airports, Yadav said BJP specializes in renaming the SP successful schemes. He said in all three years the government failed to expand the Lucknow metro by not even a single km. He said that all these fancy schemes in the budget for Expressways and airports are an eyewash and are likely to shine just like soap bubbles and will just fizzle out,
Yadav said that as for him he is happy and satisfied that he served the people of his state well, invested in development sector and provided genuine welfare schemes for each section.
“Mer a kaam dikhta hain, mujsey bolta hain ( my work is visible, it speaks to me) and that he said gives him immense pleasure and satisfaction .
He advised Yogi to shed his biases and to work honestly for the welfare of the state whose people have made him their leader.