Uttar Pradesh government tables first supplementary budget of Rs 19,825 crore

LUCKNOW: Presenting a supplementary budget of Rs 19,824.98 crore for the current fiscal, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today sought funds for higher pay to the legislators and to build a stadium in his native village Saifai.

Yadav, who also holds the finance portfolio, has sought a budgetary provision of Rs 8,502 crore for the planned projects and Rs 11,322 crore for non-planned ones.

Giving priority to infrastructure development, the government has sought Rs 200 crore for the ongoing Lucknow Metro project and another Rs 220 crore for the Lucknow-Agra Green Expressway.

It has made a symbolic budgetary provision of Rs 1,000 for the proposed Lucknow-Ballia Expressway and a same amount has been earmarked for the proposed optical fibre linking of 2.5 lakh gram sabhas in the state under a centrally-sponsored scheme.

An amount of Rs 15 crore has been demanded for a stadium in Saifai, the native village of the Chief Minister, and Rs 10 crore for paying the hiked wages and allowances of the legislators.

For the welfare of farmers, the government has sought Rs 220 crore for providing free irrigation to them and Rs 1,529 crore for providing additional assistance to the sugar mills to enable them clear cane dues.

A sum of Rs 100 crore have been sought to clear cane dues of mills belonging to sugar federation.

The government has made a symbolic provision of Rs 1,000 for the e-district scheme also to provide tablets, smartphones or laptops to gram panchayat and rural development officers.

A provision of Rs 15 crore has been made for setting up water ATMs under the Samajwadi potable water scheme.

Taking care of the religious sentiments of people, Rs 4 crore has been sought for setting up speakers for bhajans on the river banks of Ayodhya and Chitrakoot and Rs 3 crore for Samajwadi Shravan Yatra scheme of free pilgrimage to the aged.

Besides, Rs 10 lakh have been demanded for providing Rs 10,000 each to Sindhi pilgrims going to Leh-Ladakh.