Assembly Elections 2018: What Madhya Pradesh govt did with its money

Finance Minister of Madhya Pradesh Jayant Malaiya had presented the state Budget for financial year 2018-19 on February 28, 2018.

The Budget was especially important because this is an election year: Madhya Pradesh will hold assembly polls later this year.

Some highlights

To ensure that farmers get a beneficial value for their crops, the government had launched the Mukhyamantri Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana. Under the scheme, the difference between the support price and the market price is directly deposited in the bank accounts of farmers. According to the budget, Rs 15 billion was deposited in 1.05 million farmer accounts. The budget allocates Rs 374.98 billion to the agriculture sector. 

• Under the National Health Mission, the government allocated Rs 19.75 billion for 2018-19. The government had launched the Swasthya Kshetra Nivesh Protsahan Yojana to promote investment for establishing hospitals and dispensaries. The budget has proposed setting up 10-bed hospitals in rural areas with a 40 per cent investment from the government, and the remaining from private parties.
• The government announced the construction of a six-lane expressway between Bhopal and Indore at an estimated cost of Rs 50 billion. 
• The target of constructing 3,000 km roads and 150 bridges, along with renovating 3,500 km roads in 2018-19, has been set.

How does MP stack up against other states in terms of expenditure?

Education: Madhya Pradesh has allocated 12.9 per cent on education in 2018-19. This is lower than the average expenditure allocated to education by 18 other states. 

Health: Madhya Pradesh has allocated 2.8 per cent of its expenditure on health, lower than the average expenditure of 18 other states.  

Agriculture: The state has allocated 4.5 per cent of its budget on agriculture — lower than the allocations of 18 other states (6.4  per cent).  

Rural development: The state has allocated 8.9 per cent of its expenditure on rural development. This is  significantly higher than the average (5.6 per cent) of the 18 other states.

Data and text: PRS and MP government documents