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Post drubbing in Lok Sabha polls 2014, the ruling Samajwadi Party's flagship populist scheme of free laptop to class XII students has been shelved.
Other populist measures such as unemployment allowance and Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojana have also been put on the backburner.
Of late, there had been talks of discontinuing the scheme, especially after SP recorded its worst LS poll performance winning just 5 seats and that too by party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and his kin.
UP Budget 2014-15, which was tabled in the state assembly today by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has made no budgetary allocation for these flagship schemes, which were largely credited for giving a windfall state assembly polls results in 2012.
SP had won 224 seats in the 403 member UP assembly then and Akhilesh Yadav, the youth face of the party, was anointed the CM.
However, the recent LS poll debacle spelt death knell for these populist measures as the party failed to reap any electoral dividends in the face of strong 'Modi wave'.
The free laptop scheme could be fulfilled for only 2012 passed students, while the corresponding free tablet scheme for class X passed students could never take off.
Addressing the media after tabling the budget, Yadav said now the government had realigned priorities to instead spruce up infrastructure in the state.
"The free laptop was aimed at creating awareness about the imperatives of modern technology in learning process. Now, our priority is to strengthen the enabling infrastructure, such as power, health, roads, education, water etc," he added.
Yadav said the government would now focus on e-books and e-libraries for better learning in the rural and urban areas.
"We have allocated almost 75% of the budget for the poor, agriculture, farmers and the rural sector," he said.
Meanwhile, the state budget size inflated by almost 25% to Rs 2,74,705 crore compared to Rs 2,21,201 crore in 2014-15. The full budget is Rs 14,857 crore more than the interim budget that Yadav had tabled on February 21, 2014 for 2014-15.
During 2011-12 and 2012-13, the annual budget was estimated at Rs 1,69,416 crore and Rs 2,00,110 crore respectively.
As per budget, the government expects total receipts of about Rs 2,70,573 crore against expenditure of Rs 2,74,705 crore.
Total receipts comprise Rs 2,26,419 crore and Rs 44,154 crore in revenue and capital receipts respectively. Total expenditure comprise Rs 1,97,425 crore and Rs 77,280 crore in revenue and capital expenditure respectively.
Meanwhile, the annual financial statement estimated revenue savings of Rs 28,994 crore. The fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs 28,411 crore, which is 2.97% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).
