Education infrastructure gets lion's share in Chhattisgarh's Budget

The Chhattisgarh government has set aside Rs 19,489 crore for the school education department, the highest provision for any department in the Rs 1.21-trillion annual Budget for the fiscal year 2023–24.  

The allocation is about Rs 3,000 crore more than the previous year, also the highest increase for any department.  

Terming it a ‘Budget of trust’, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who also holds the finance portfolio, said his government had fulfilled the promises it had made before the 2018 state elections. Analysts said the government had to face tough challenges implementing the promises given the fiscal constraints in the election year. Chhattisgarh goes to the polls later in the year.  

According to the Revised Estimates, the size of the state Budget for 2022-23 had increased to about Rs 1.12 trillion. The Budget Estimates for 2023-24 stand at Rs 1.21 trillion, an increase of just Rs 9,000 crore that analysts observed was not enough to implement all the schemes and programmes envisaged. 

The Budget has made a provision of Rs 870 crore for opening 101 new Swami Atmanand English-medium schools, which were started in 2020-21 to provide excellent education in English to students in government schools. At present, 238,961 are studying in 247 English-medium and 32 Hindi-medium Swami Atmanand schools.  With a provision of Rs 200 crore, the state has proposed to set up a medical college in each of Mane­ndragarh, Gidam, Janjgir Champa, and Kabirdham districts.  

The unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month to educated youth announced is in sequence, Baghel said, adding that the honoraria of the workers associated with Anganwadi, health workers, and Gothans projects had been increased. 

The state had allocated 15.36 per cent of Budget (Rs 18,660 crore) for capital expenditures. The rise is less than 1 per cent compared to the provision made in the last fiscal year. The subsidy burden  has also risen by 1.17 per cent to 8.17 per cent compared to the previous fiscal year.