UP CM Akhilesh Yadav hikes excise duty on alcohol

“Jabse patwaron (oar) ne meri naav ko dhokha diya, main bhanwar mein tairane ka hausla rakhne laga.”

With these couplets opening his Budget speech on Friday, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said more than he concealed about the prevailing situation in Uttar Pradesh.

He said that he had faced difficulties in fulfilling the promises he had made to the people but he did not lose hope and continued to make efforts till he succeeded.

“We are focusing on infrastructure, innovation, health and education sectors,” he said.

Presenting his fifth and last budget before elections in the state Assembly on Friday, Mr Yadav has laid special emphasis on the agriculture, rural development, power urban development and minority welfare. He said that the thrust would be on infrastructure development because this is the core of industrial development of the state.

His please-all Budget had something special for the agriculture sector, including Rs 1,336 crore to clear cane dues, Rs 897 crore for Kisan Insurance Scheme, Rs 709 crore for disaster management and Rs 2,057 crore for the 50 drought-hit districts.

For alcohol consumers, there is some bad news because the state government has proposed a 10 per cent hike in excise duties which means liquor is going to get more expensive. The CM has proposed the setting up of a Kisan Bazar in Bahraich and promoting organic farming in Hamirpur.

For unemployed graduates, jobs will be created in the agriculture sector through 1,000 agri-junctions. With Bundelkhand turning into a hotbed of politics in the state, the Akhilesh government has increased the Bundelkhand package to Rs 200 crore from the earlier Rs 71.5 crore. A sum of Rs 11 90 crore has been set aside for the rural electrification scheme in the region and a sum of Rs 500 crore for rural drinking water scheme.

The dream project of Mr Yadav, the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, has been given an additional Rs 4,003 crores while Rs 250 crores has been set aside for the channelisation of the Gomti river in Lucknow. Mr Yadav earmarked Rs 814 crore for Lucknow Metro and Rs 50 crore each for the proposed metro rail in Varanasi and Kanpur.

To improve the law and order in the state, the government has proposed a sum of Rs 216 for modernization of the police force, smart city surveillance system in 11 cities at the cost of Rs 161 crores and the setting up of legal-scientific laboratories in Lucknow, Allahabad, Kannauj and Jhansi at the cost of Rs 40 crores. In the wildlife sector, the Akhilesh government has set aside a sum of Rs one crore each for Butterfly Parks in Kanpur and Lucknow and a sum of Rs 10 crore for modernization of the Lucknow zoo. The budget, however, proposes no new taxes and its size is Rs 3, 46,935 crores which is 14.6 per cent bigger than the previous year.