Jharkhand’s Champai Soren government, while presenting the budget for the year 2024-25 in the Assembly on Tuesday, has made several announcements including waiving off agricultural loans of farmers of the state up to Rs 2 lakh, increasing the honorarium of public representatives of the Panchayati Raj system. The total size of this budget of Rs 1 lakh 28 thousand 900 crore is about 3.7 percent more than last year.
Finance Minister Dr. Rameshwar Oraon, while presenting the budget for the fifth consecutive year, said that the target is to make the state’s economy worth Rs 10 lakh crore by the year 2029-30. In his speech he also enumerated the achievements of the coalition government.
MLAs of the opposition party BJP boycotted the House, terming the budget as airy and against the interests of the public. The Finance Minister said in his speech that freeing farmers from debt is the priority of the government.
So far, loan waiver of Rs 1,858 crore has been made under the loan waiver scheme. The limit of loan waiver under this scheme was Rs 50 thousand. Now the loan waiver limit has been increased to Rs 2 lakh in the financial year 2024-25. Along with this, farmers holding NPA accounts will also be included in this scheme and given benefits.
He said that providing relief to farmers from drought and increasing their income is our priority. Under the Birsa Seed Production Scheme in 2023-24, about 2 lakh 10 thousand farmers were benefited by distributing seeds to them.
The honorarium of public representatives of Panchayati Raj has been increased for the first time. For this, an amount of Rs 2,066 crore is proposed in 2024-25. It has been said in the budget that 20 lakh houses will be constructed for the poor by 2027-28 through the Abua Housing Scheme run by the state government.
In this scheme, financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh is given to the beneficiaries in 5 installments. Announcements like 19 new colleges, 4 women’s colleges, establishment of one more medical college in Ranchi and establishment of a medico city have also been made in the budget.
The Finance Minister said that the state government will attract investment of more than Rs 20 thousand crore, which will provide employment to one lakh people. It has been announced to provide Soybean-Badi to the ration card holders in the state.
He said that before this, Hemant Soren’s government had decided to give one kg pulses to the poor every month. Now the government will also provide vegetables (soybean and elderberry) along with rice and pulses. Soybean-Badi will be distributed among those ration card holders who are covered under the National Food Security Act and Jharkhand State Food Security Scheme.
It has also been announced in the budget to provide a kit of mosquito net, dress, oil-soap and bucket-mug to pregnant women. 6 lakh beneficiaries will get benefit under this scheme. For this, a provision of Rs 90 crore has been made in the budget.
It has also been announced to connect 90 thousand families with rural women entrepreneurship in the next financial year. The Finance Minister claimed that the economic growth rate in the state is estimated to be 7.7 percent in 2024-25. T
o ensure that we do not face any adverse economic situation in future, an investment of Rs 1,600 crore has been made in the sinking fund. This will be used for loan repayment.