Supplementary budget passed, CM talks of ‘big vision for largest state’

The three-day Assembly session was concluded in two days of proceedings after the supplementary budget was cleared after a day-long discussion. Also, the Uttar Pradesh Intermediate Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Uttar Pradesh Naimisharanya Teerth Vikas Parishad Bill, 2022, were passed in the House.

Responding to the Opposition’s claim, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that development of the country’s largest state needed a “big vision”.

“The focus of the supplementary budget is to help UP achieve 1-trillion dollar economy goal with urbanisation, bringing investment and generating employment as top priorities of the government,” the CM said.

Alleging that UP was known for “riots and garbage in the past”, Adityanath claimed that his government in the past five-and-a-half years has been successful in changing perception about the state. He also appealed to all the MLAs to identify the areas in their constituencies where cluster based investment can be sought.

“With this supplementary budget, the state’s total budget for 2022-23 will be Rs 6.5 lakh crore, keeping in mind its size. Our priority is urbanisation by developing new cities. The model for the development of new cities and townships in the state is being adopted, for which a provision of Rs 4,000 crore has been made,” he added. Uttar Pradesh aspires to become the “growth engine” to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieve his target of 5-trillion dollar economy, he said.
Claiming that his government has implemented schemes without discrimination, Adityanath requested everyone’s co-operation to make the upcoming Global Investors Summit a success.

The state is attracting investments as it has emerged as a model in terms of law and order in the country, he claimed, adding that unlike in the past every festival is being celebrated today in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. “Till 2017, no city in the state could be called safe. Our government is in the process of making 18 cities, including Gautam Buddha Nagar, safe. UP has become the first state to have six expressways and work is on seven such roads. Before 2017, there were just three airports in the state that today has nine functional airports while work on 10 is going on,” the CM said.

The Centre is working to make 10 UP cities “smart”, while the state government is working to make seven cities “smart”, he said.

Also, the CM talked of as how the number of religious tourists has gone up after the development of Kashi Vishwanath Dham. “This increased footfall brings in economic opportunities for locals. Ayodhya would see a bigger change after completion of the Ram temple. Infrastructure projects worth Rs 30,000 crore are being implemented in Ayodhya,” he said.

Earlier, opposition leaders like Samajwadi Party’s Lalji Verma, Congress legislature party leader Aradhna Mishra and her BSP counterpart Uma Shanker Singh raised questions on the need for the supplementary budget when just 33 per cent of the main budget was utilised.