The Chhattisgarh Assembly Wednesday passed the budget for 2019-20 by a voice vote.
His government's "definition of development" is uplifting villagers, farmers and workers and "not devastating tribal lands in the name of erecting buildings, bridges and concrete-jungle", Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said in his reply to the discussion on the Chhattisgarh Appropriation Bill, 2019.
Afterwards, the Rs 95,899 crore budget was passed with a voice vote.
Baghel said the financial deficit stands at Rs 10,880 crore while the public debt as of March 31, 2018 was Rs 39,300 crore, 17.4 percent of GSDP, much less than the average 23.2 per cent for other states.
Baghel, who holds the finance portfolio, noted that his government waived short-term agricultural loans and procured paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal from farmers.
"My government has borrowed loans for the welfare of farmers and villages. The loan was not taken to misuse money for works like unnecessary increasing the height of a bridge over the Kolhannala or distribution of mobile phones," he said, taking a dig at the previous BJP regime.
On the issue of forest rights certificates, the chief minister assured that the rights of forest-dwellers will not be snatched away.
During the previous government's tenure, 8.55 lakh individual claims for forest rights certificates were received, of which 4.51 lakh claims were rejected, he said.
His government will re-examine these 4.51 lakh applications, Baghel said.
The government's flagship scheme Narwa, Garuwa, Ghurwa and Badi aims at strengthening the rural economy and will prove to be a milestone in rural development, he said.
The MLA Local Area Development Fund has been hiked from Rs 1 to Rs 2 crore, while he was now announcing that the public contact fund for legislators would be increased from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, the chief minister said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
