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

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog