Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday described the Union Budget 2018-19 as historic, saying it lays a solid ground for the foundation of a 'New India'.
"The budget 2018 is farmer friendly, common man friendly, business-environment friendly and development friendly and caters to the hopes and aspirations of crores of Indian," he said in a statement.
Thakur said the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be the world's biggest healthcare scheme that would provide health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh to each beneficiary family. This would benefit about 50 crore people, he added.
The Chief Minister also hailed the announcement regarding providing assistance of Rs 500 per month to patients suffering from tuberculosis.
Thakur said the decision to provide eight crore free LPG connections to rural poor women under the Ujjwala scheme would also go a long way in providing much-needed relief to the rural poor and also help environmental conservation.
--IANS
vg/nks/rn