UP govt spent 38% of budget till January 2018, allocation for social sector in 2018-19 slips, many schemes dropped

By Umesh Babu*
The Uttar Pradesh budget papers, presented by the state government in the assembly on February 16, even as suggesting an 11.4% rise in allocations -- from Rs 4,17,257 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 4,56,248 crore in 2018-19 -- have, ironically, also revealed that the total expenditure met during 2017-18 till January 2018 was just 37.91%. It means, till March-end, the government would need to spend 62% of the budget amount.
While this suggests the shameless style of working of an elected political party, sectorwise details show that in agriculture Rs 36,687.31 crore was allocated in 2017-18, but only Rs 20,403.49 crore (55.61%) could be spent till January 2018. The spending for scheduled tribes (ST) was 24.16% of the allocation, for scheduled castes (SCs) it was 45.69%, for the handicapped and backward classes it was 26%, for woman and child it was 43.3%, and for forest and environment it was 47.56%.
Increase in the current budget allocation stands in sharp contrast to all public pronouncements on welfare state. For instance, the subsidy on certified seeds, which was Rs 65 crore in 20117-18, has been reduced to Rs 55 crore in 2018-19. Similarly several other schemes that benefits to the farmers have seen a reduction in budgetary allocations.
The forest working people have suffered from the relief they were getting. The state government has abandoned many schemes that directly benefit them. This is reflected in the Social Forestry District Plan expenditure, which was Rs 230.51, but has been reduced to Rs 120 crore for 2018-19.
On the other hand, even as allocating Rs 24,448 crore for SCs, Rs 2,307 crore of this amount had been set aside as loan to power sector companies, and Rs 1,713 crore will go to canal and highways construction. A similar pattern can be observed in allocations for schemes meantmfor dairying, fisheries, sugarcane subsidy, etc., many of whom have seen a massive reduction or have been abandoned altogether.
The labour and employment department has started winding up its offices by reducing budget in the activities that matter for employment exchanges and employment to the youth. For example, for employment exchange offices, there is a budget allocation of Rs 66 crore, but the allocation for facilitating training and distributing materials is just Rs 0.151 crore for the entire state!
The state governments appears to have made a mockery of the health department budget. It is manipulated figures by increasing and decreasing allocations for two separate purposes -- salary and ‘charges for professional and other services’. The amount reduced and increased is exactly Rs 1,177.84 crore. Similar lapses are found everywhere in the health sector.
For woman and child welfare, the budget has been increased from Rs 6,353 crore to Rs 7,481 crore, but allocations in schemes like maternal welfare, nutritional feeding to malnourished children, nutritional feeding to pregnant women have been reduced. Some of the schemes have been abandoned altogether.
---
*Delhi Solidarity Group. Click HERE for detailed analysis

Comments

राजेश देशज said…

ऐसे आयेंगे अच्छे दिन ?????????

February 28, 2018

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

Mental health: India's 95% patients "deprived" of medical care, treatment gap 70%

By Moin Qazi*
Among the many challenges India faces, the most underappreciated is the ongoing mental health crisis. Mental illness is actually India’s ticking bomb. An estimated 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million from anxiety disorders. For those who suffer from mental illness, life can seem like a terrible prison from which there is no hope of escape; they are left forlorn and abandoned, stigmatized, shunned and misunderstood.

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

Counterview

Search This Blog