Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday announced a series of measures for the education sector, including hike in the honorarium for shiksha mitras (para teachers) to Rs 18,000 and anudeshaks (instructors) to Rs 17,000, expansion of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) and increased allocations for school infrastructure and digital learning.
The shiksha mitras, who have long been demanding a hike in their honorarium, were so far paid Rs 10,000.
Speaking on the last day of the budget session in the state Assembly, the CM also announced cashless medical facilities of up to Rs 5 lakh for dependents of teachers.
Pointing towards Samajwadi Party MLAs, Adityanath said, “You used to pay them Rs 3,000, we increased it to Rs 10,000. Now, we are going to give Rs 18,000 to shiksha mitras and Rs 17,000 to anudeshaks.”
Calling the Rs 9.12 lakh crore Budget “historic”, the CM claimed that UP has moved from among the “bottom three” states to the “top three” states in the past nine years, attributing the shift to “fiscal discipline, curbs on leakages and a sustained push on capital expenditure”.
The fiscal deficit, which stood at 4.39% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 2016-17, has declined to 2.97% in 2025-26, he further said.
The state’s debt burden, he said, also came down from around 30% to about 26%, with a target to reduce it further to 23% by 2026-27.
“The state’s per capita income has risen from nearly Rs 43,000 in 2016-17 to over Rs 1.2 lakh by the end of 2024-25. The state’s GSDP increased from about Rs 13 lakh crore to Rs 36 lakh crore, with a target of Rs 40 lakh crore in 2026-27,” Adityanath said.
Adityanath said the government had prioritised capital expenditure, which had increased from around Rs 71,000 crore in 2016-17 to over Rs 1.77 lakh crore. Investment in infrastructure generates employment, expands industrial activity and yields a five to six times multiplier effect on the economy, he said.
The state government, the CM claimed, was successful in plugging leakages, strengthening financial transparency and improving the Personal Ledger Account (PLA) system to prevent unnecessary parking of funds. The credit-deposit ratio in the state had improved from around 43-44% in 2016-17 to about 61-62%, indicating higher local deployment of bank deposits, he added.
Referring to the government’s economic management, the Chief Minister said the agriculture loan waiver announced in 2017 for small and marginal farmers — covering up to Rs 1 lakh for around 86 lakh farmers — was implemented through budgetary resources without borrowing from financial institutions.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Mata Prasad Pandey, alleged that the government was merely increasing the amount of consolidated budget to raise numbers and a number of departments failed to utilise the previous allocations. There has been a manifold rise in the loans taken by the state, he said.
Refuting the claim, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna requested Pandey not to spread what he termed as “false information”.
The CM informed the House that a semiconductor fabrication unit would be inaugurated in Gautam Buddha Nagar on Sunday and the government is working on the plan to attract investments of Rs 32,000 crore in the sector. IT exports from the state had increased from Rs 15,000 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 75,000-80,000 crore, he said.
The state government is soon going to hold the groundbreaking ceremony for the investment proposals received in the state, he added.
‘Brahmin politics’ reaches Assembly
Addressing the state Assembly on the concluding day of the ongoing budget session, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath alleged that the pension scheme during the Samajwadi Party’s government benefited only SP cadre and not even those associated with its alliance partner Congress.
He went on to allege that the party even failed to benefit “garib Brahmin” (poor Brahmins) during its tenure. He told Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Mata Prasad Pandey, that they could not even provide scholarship to “garib Brahmin” during their tenure. On this, Pandey responded to the Chief Minister saying, “Apke raj mein garib Brahman jeene to paaven (first let the poor Brahmin survive during your government).”
UP Tourism has launched the ‘My Lens’ and ‘Personal Treasure’ campaigns, inviting citizens to submit photos and heritage objects by April 18 for a chance to be featured in the State Museum. (file) 
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