Akhilesh Yadav eyes 2014 votes with SP’s Budget number two
On March 15, when the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in Uttar Pradesh would complete its first year in office, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav would distribute free laptops and Tablets to the students to celebrate the occasion. And with that people would get the message that whatever promises Akhilesh and the SP had made during the elections in 2012, and the last Budget have been fulfilled.
The Budget for 2013-2014 will similarly be the ruling party’s way to woo the citizens—farmers, Muslims and women—with various populist schemes to win more votes from these constituencies. But in the process, the state government has been neglecting critical areas like health and power. With preference being votes and not development, one wonders what will happen when the government faces the parliamentary elections in 2014.
So what are the populist measures of the SP government? It has opened up the government coffers to the Muslims who form the main support base of the party. Recently, it recommended to the Centre that 17 backward castes in the scheduled caste categories be enlisted. The state government also distributed unemployment allowance to the jobless youth; and through the Kanya Vidya Dhan scheme supported the young girls of the Muslim community. Though the government could not distribute the free laptop computers and Tablets to the students last year, it is beginning to implement this scheme also in accordance to its election manifesto. Following its victory in the 2012 Assembly elections, by winning 226 seats out of 403, the SP had announced its Mission 2014, which is to get nearly 50 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 parliamentary elections, and ensure that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav becomes the prime minister. It was for this reason Akhilesh focussed on implementing the election manifesto and the promises. “People, who have voted us, should not get disappointed. So, the party and the government machinery also implemented the poll promises,” explained Yashwant Singh, MLC of the ruling party.
When it introduced its Budget for 2012-2013, the SP government had made budgetary provisions for implementing the manifesto. However, much of the money that was allocated either remained unused or was not released at all. It led to non-implementation of many schemes. If the government could distribute the unemployment allowance and the `30,000-aid to the Muslim girls, it could not implement its other promises. Despite the biting cold this time, the government could not distribute free sarees and blankets to the poor. Same fate awaited the Lohia Housing Scheme for the rural poor. The chief minister admitted that he could not utilise the last financial year’s Budget because of “insufficient” time and the Centre’s non-cooperative attitude towards Uttar Pradesh.
On February 19, the chief minister—who also holds finance portfolio—tabled the Budget for the year 2013-2014, with a hike of nearly 10 per cent. The annual Budget for the next financial year has been estimated at Rs 2,21,201.19 crore, which is nearly 10 per cent more to the Budget of the current financial year ending March 31. In the next financial year, the deficit in the state Budget is expected to be around Rs 23,913.29 crore which is about 2.94 of the GDP of the state. The Budget of the state for the next financial year also revealed that the state was reeling under a severe debt crisis and it has already recorded a debt of over Rs 200,000 crore, which means that every citizen of the state and even a new-born is burdened with a budget of over Rs 12,000. The SP government did not reduce the government expenditure heads, mainly on the salaries, establishment and the payment of interests on the government borrowings and the debts.
The message from the Budget for the next year is loud and clear that the party can put the development on backburner, but not the voters. The Budget has earmarked Rs 1,200 crore for the unemployment allowance, Rs 750 crore for loan waiver to the farmers, Rs 1,683 crore for pension to the elders, Rs 400 crore each for providing houses to the poor and motorized rickshaws, Rs 600 crore for the free distribution of sarees and blankets to the poor, `492 crore for the Muslim welfare, Rs 300 crore for the maintenance of Muslim graveyards, Rs 777 crore for the scholarships to the Muslim students , Rs 200 crore for the madrasas, Rs 315 crore for the madrasas teaching Arabic.
With all these allocations, life should be smoother for the people of the state. But question remains whether unlike 2012-2013, the new Budget would be fully utilised or remain just a paper tiger. Or else, Mission 2014 may remain a distant dream.
The Sunday Standard