NEW DELHI: The Yogi Adityanath government presented its first budget on Tuesday, targeting a 10% growth rate in Uttar Pradesh over the next five years while focusing sharply on central schemes unlike its predecessor, pushing projects close to its Hindutva ideology and fulfilling the massive Rs 36,000 crore farm loan waiver promise.It has allocated nearly Rs 1,240 crore for developing the Ramayana tourist circuit in Ayodhya, Buddhist Circuit in Sarnath and Krishna Circuit in Mathura under the Centre’s ‘Swadesh Darshan Yojana’, which aims to develop sites connected with Lord Ram and Lord Krishna. The previous Akhilesh Yadav government had earmarked only Rs 34 crore for these projects.Further, the BJP government in the state plans to spend Rs 800 crore to develop Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura cities under the Centre’s ‘Prasad Scheme’, through projects including a river cruise and laser show in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency.As per the budgetary announcements, Rs 25 crore will be spent to connect these cities and other tourist destinations such as Agra by a chopper service while Rs 3 crore will be spent on organising a Ramayana conclave Another special allocation of Rs 5 crore has been made to develop RSS ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s native village, Nagla Chandrabha, near Mathura.“This is the biggest budget in UP at Rs 3.84 lakh crore. We will stop unnecessary expenditure and plug leakages to save money. For giving the Rs 36,000 crore farm loan waiver, we have not put any new burden or tax on the common man,” Chief Minister Adityanath said in his speech.The budget stresses on development projects too. The budget fixed a target of creating “70 lakh opportunities of employment and self-employment” in the next five years.

Source: Economic Times July 11, 2017 20:26 UTC