In the 2014-15 state budget, UP chief minister has wiped out most of the freebies and has focused on basic necessities including infrastructure, energy and job creation.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday presented the state budget for thefiscal year 2014-15, which focuses more on development sectors. This also includes free skill development training to six lakh youth of Uttar Pradesh in the year.
After losing the Lok Sabha battle against BJP, the party has come up with reassessed plans this year, and wants to focus on advancing road networks in UP. The infrastructure sector might get a 50 percent boost that will go into the development of roads, bridges and irrigation, according to Times of India. Additionally, the party has proposed 30 percent increase in energy sector.
In these sectors, budget allocation for the FY13 was ₹23, 591.72 crore, which has been increased up by 25 percent to ₹26, 641 crore, this year.
The free schemes introduced after the 2012 elections reportedly seem to have no or little space in the new budget plans and SP also intends to cut out the schemes offering free sarees, blankets, and kanya vidyadhan.
Under the free sarees and blankets scheme, BPL women aged above 18 years are given two sarees each and people above the age of 65 years gets one blanket each.
The free laptop and unemployment allowance schemes are also likely to witness a downfall in 2014-15 budget allocation. From ₹2,000 crore allocated in the last budget, the free laptop scheme is likely to get approximately ₹700 crore this year. The budget allocation for the unemployment allowance scheme will slump down by 50 percent of ₹1, 600 crore in the last year.
Instead of spending much on free laptops and unemployment allowance, the party has focused on polishing youth’s skill.
To boost job creation, a new scheme providing skill development training to approx six lakh youth is likely to be introduced this fiscal year. Apart from this, the UP government has increased the seats in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), adding 26, 840 this fiscal year.
The increased number of seats in ITIs is still not enough, as the number of students waiting for admission to these institutes is comparatively higher. According to TOI, every year more than two lakh students are waitlisted for admissions in ITIs.