Uttar Pradesh government’s supplementary budget of ₹7301.52 crore for 2021-22 passed; tablets, smartphones to be given to one crore youths to make them digitally proficient, state assembly adjourned sine die
The Uttar Pradesh assembly was adjourned sine die on Thursday after the state government got the mini supplementary budget of ₹7301.52 crore for 2021-22 passed and chief minister Yogi Adityanath made a number of announcements for different sections.
The announcements included 11% increase in the dearness allowance (DA) to the state government employees and pensioners with effect from July 1, 2021, a housing scheme for the poor on the land made available by demolishing the illegal buildings of the mafia and the reopening of schools. Besides, tablets/smartphones will be given to one crore youths to make them digitally proficient under a ₹ 3,000 crore scheme.
He said schools and colleges from class 9 and above had already started functioning and “classes 6 to 8 are being started from August 23. We are trying that schools of basic education are opened from September 1.”
“The leaders of opposition parties were in home isolation during Covid-19…Minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna is saying most of them were in hospitals. But the state government’s offices were working. So, we have decided to increase the DA from 17% to 28%,” the chief minister said, replying to the issues that leaders of Opposition parties raised during a debate on the supplementary budget in the state assembly here.
He said 16 lakh employees and 12 lakh pensioners would benefit from the announcement of the DA hike.
As the business advisory committee had recommended sine die adjournment of the House at its meeting on Wednesday, no questions were taken up during the question hour. Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit announced that all the questions would be treated as answered with written replies. The assembly’s Monsoon session had begun on August 17.
The chief minister said houses would be constructed for the poor on the land made available by demolishing the illegal buildings of the mafia.
“We have confiscated/demolished illegal buildings of the Mafia worth ₹1500 crore. We are bringing a housing scheme for the poor at the same land where these buildings of the mafia existed. This is social justice. Those sheltering the mafia had given the state a bad image in the past,” he said.
Yogi declared his government was devoting the supplementary budget to the youths and the corona warriors. He read out a couplet calling upon the youths to create a new era.
“UP’s youths can now go anywhere and can say with pride that he belonged to this state…We are providing jobs to our youth within the state. We have launched this fund with ₹3,000 crore and we will give tablets/smartphones to (one crore) youths. The youths pursuing the PG and diploma courses will be linked to this scheme. We will also provide digital access to them. We will give allowance to the youths to appear in three competitive examinations.”
About the sugarcane dues, he said, “Sugar export is opening soon, and we will clear all the dues before commencement of the new crushing season.”
He also said the monitoring committees did a good job amid the pandemic and “anganwadi workers, Asha workers and others worked on lower honorarium in fight against Covid-19. We have increased their honorarium.”
He said advocates have been already given social security and the amount given under the scheme has been increased from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh. He also spoke about the work his government was doing for the welfare of cows and said six lakh animals of the cow family were in cow shelters.
Besides the appropriation bill for the supplementary budget, the House also passed the Uttar Pradesh State Universities (Amendment) Bill 2021 to rename the Saharanpur State University as Ma Shakumbhari University and the Uttar Pradesh Private Universities (Amendment) Bill 2021.
Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary, however, targeted the chief minister for his address, saying he had not replied to any of the questions raised by the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress members in the House.
He also alleged villages had turned into cremation grounds amid the pandemic and the chief minister’s speech was an election stunt.
