The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday presented the budget for financial year 2024-25 in the state assembly with an allocation of over Rs 89,000 crore, focusing on welfare of the poor, disaster mitigation, infrastructure development and improving air connectivity in all districts. Presenting the budget of Rs 89,230.07 crore in the House, state finance minister Premchand Agarwal said it was an inclusive budget aimed at building a developed, well-governed and capable Uttarakhand.
“The spirit of the budget is inclusive and it touches all sections,” he said.
“We are breaking the vicious circle of policy paralysis and working on a bigger scale and at a higher speed,” the minister said in his budget speech.
Spelling out the priorities, Agarwal said the budget makes allocations to rid people in remote hill areas of all identified unsafe bridges, unsafe trolleys used to cross rivers, building crash barriers along identified stretches, which can prevent accidents, and “saturate air connectivity” potential of all districts.
Providing necessary furniture to all government schools, solar energy saturation system in all government buildings in a phased manner, and e-office implementation in all government offices are also among the other priorities, he said.
Besides, the budget will also give priority to total digitisation of land and other government records, bio-fencing saturation of agriculture, horticulture and forest departments, construction of Panhchayat buildings, theme parks, parking lots and theme-based science and innovation centres, Agarwal said.
The budget is slated to be passed by the state assembly on March 1 after a debate over the next few days.
Out of the total outlay of Rs 89,230.07 crore, the government has budgeted Rs 55,815.77 crore for revenue expenditure and Rs 33,414.30 crore for capital expenditure.
It has allocated Rs 1,404.30 crore for PWD and put Rs 917.47 crore under maintenance head.
Also, Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated for Centre’s PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana), while Rs 850 crore for various mega projects.
The FY25 budget also has an outlay of Rs 710 crore for Jamrani dam project, Rs 300 crore for Song dam project and Rs 250 crore for Lakhwar project.
The state has earmarked Rs 1,010.66 crore for the national health mission.
For school education, the budget has allocated Rs 339.50 crore for FY25.
Other major allocations included a sum of Rs 144 crore for civil aviation, Rs 612 crore for urban development, Rs 357 crore for housing development and Rs 60 crore for infrastructure in scheduled caste-dominated areas.
Other focus areas of the budget include employment generation, infrastructure development, balanced development of rural and urban areas, tourism development and cultural conservation, science, technology, research and innovation.
