Srinagar, March 15: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman for the “progressive and futuristic budget for rapid transformation of Jammu & Kashmir”. The Lok Sabha on Monday passed Rs 1,12,950 crore Jammu & Kashmir UT budget for 2022-23.
“Truly grateful to Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Union Finance Minister for fulfilling the needs & aspirations of the people of J&K and to accelerate the pace of economic development. The budget will ensure equitable, sustainable, inclusive growth and more jobs”, the Lt Governor said in a statement.
The LG said the budget “builds upon the good performance of the last one year, meets all the challenges for which adequate provisions have been made particularly in the area of infrastructure development, facilitating investment & industrial growth & deepening grass-root democracy”.
He said the J&K UT’s budget 2022-23 “reflects the commitment of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for peace, progress & prosperity of J&K” saying it will “put in place social safety nets for last man in the queue, sufficient outlays for rural development, healthcare services, urban renewal missions, employment generation and youth initiatives”.
“I am confident that the record Rs 1,12,950 crore budget and continued push for various flagship programmes of the Centre & UT will provide relief to all sections of the society – especially common man. Our focus on increasing the investment in agriculture & allied sector, inclusive growth has been clearly underlined,” the LG said.
The LG said the budget “pays lot of emphasis on sustainable, equitable growth, more jobs, improving quality of life, education, strengthening the skill development, power sector, tourism, handicraft, tribal welfare, women empowerment & border areas development”.
“Good governance, deepening grass-root democracy, accelerated development & inclusive growth, facilitating investment & industrial growth, infrastructure development for improving quality of life, Broadening Social Inclusion were among the focus areas of the Budget 2022-23”.
Sinha said that the Union Government has “kept the provisions for various important initiatives having a greater impact on various sectors”.
In the budget, an amount of Rs 7,750 crore has been provisioned under Jal Jeevan Mission for achieving the objective of 100% piped water supply to each household; Rs 357 crore for Solid Waste Management in two Municipal Corporations and 76 ULBs and Rs 1,313 crore for PRIs/ULBs.
Besides, Rs 200 crore at Rs10 crore each has been earmarked as ‘Development Fund’ for 20 DDCs and Rs 71.25 crore @ Rs 25 lakh each as ‘Development Fund’ for 285 BDCs while as Rs 1206 crore have been provisioned for Equity Component of Kiru and Ratle Power Projects under execution; Rs 200 crore for heritage preservation and development of sufi/religious sites; Rs 373 crore for Dal-Nageen lake Development and Conservation; Rs 120 crore have been earmarked for encouraging use of renewable energy (Solar Energy).
An amount of Rs 450 crore have been provisioned for GST re-imbursement to ensure timely reimbursement of claims even as a provision of Rs 200 crore has been kept for capitalization of the J&K Bank Ltd, Rs 20 crore for establishment of highway resting places; Rs 400 crore for CRIF roads, Rs 2400 crore for PMGSY roads and Rs 1000 crore for NABARD scheme and Rs 28 crore for maintenance of Mughal Road.
Special provisions have been kept for Women empowerment and welfare of farmers & tribal community with Rs 12 crore under Tejeswini scheme for empowerment of women and full UT share under NRLM to improve livelihood of women in rural areas, besides Rs 3 crore under Women Entrepreneurship Programme implemented by Women Development Corporation. Besides, Rs 100 crore have been provisioned for welfare of tribals which include construction of Tribal Hostels/Milk Villages/ Nomad Shelters/Libraries for Gujjars. Moreover, Rs 40 crore have been provisioned for saturation of Soil Health Cards, Krishi Radio & Krishi Helpline.
‘Mera Gaon Swachh Gaon’ cleanliness programme to be initiated in all villages during 2022-23: An amount of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for Urban Infrastructure Fund to ensure expeditious supplementation of SBM 2.0; Rs 90 crore have been provisioned for Third Party Monitoring, improving rating in Good Governance Index, PPP Cell, VGF, setting up of Transaction Advisory Cell and consultancy; Rs 150 crore have been provisioned for development of new housing colonies; Rs 50 crore for construction of police housing colony and Rs 40 crore for relief and rehabilitation.
An amount of Rs 100 crore each has been kept for the festival and cinema/theatre (films) promotion; Rs 70 crore for new circuits including Mansar, Surinsar & Sufi Circuits, besides construction of Water Parks in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar and Rs 50 crore for retrieval of land under Roshni Act.
An amount of Rs 150 crore have been provisioned for Urban Renewal and Development Fund including Creation of City Sustainability Fund to promote/incentivize reforms such as Property Tax, Service Level Benchmarking, User Charges, Creation of Ward Sabhas, Public Disclosure. For Nasha Mukt Abhiyan, Rs 15 crore have been provisioned; besides Rs 600 crore kept under Border Area Development Programme; Rs 50 crore for Samridh Seema Yojana; Rs 100 crore have been provisioned under City Grants for JMC/SMC; Rs 200 crore for smart city projects; Rs 200 crore for procurement of Machinery and Equipments and Rs 400 crore for procurement of drugs in health sector; Rs 5 crore have been provisioned for insurance of passenger vehicles as part of Business Revival Package and Rs 25 crore as subsidy for replacement of old vehicles; Rs 10 crore have been provisioned for achieving end-to-end Digitization of Revenue Records, issuance of Land Pass Books/Devices for Patwaris.
A total of 8.93 lakh farmers are said to benefit by distribution of High Yielding Varieties/Hybrid seeds with an investment of Rs 23.97 crore while 36,000 farmers will be trained for capacity building with a provision of Rs. 27 crore. Around 16,960 farmers are expectedbe benefitted by covering over 15240 hectares area by providing infrastructure facilities with a provision of around Rs 55.80 crore.
An amount of Rs 81 cr has been earmarked for providing farm machinery to benefit 33,200 farmers and Rs 30 crore has been kept for restoration of irrigation for 8,670 hectare of land by maintenance of Field Channels.
A total of 50,000 Metric Tonne Controlled Atmosphere storage capacity of horticulture produce is targeted for completion during 2022-23 with a target of Controlled Atmosphere storage capacity of about 5 Lakh Metric Tons in next three years.
Also, subsidized air freight will be provided under “PARVAZ” scheme to push trout exports to various cities and Middle East countries.
Budget 2022-23 on healthcare system in J&K:
The pace of coverage of AB-PMJAY is expected to accelerate during 2022-23 covering all the residents of J&K.
First Batch of MBBS classes in New Medical colleges at Handwara (Kupwara) and Udhampur are expected to start during academic session 2022-23 increasing the overall intake capacity to 1300 MBBS seats in J&K.
Availability of Doctors and Specialists in New Government Medical Colleges are said to be increased for better patient management and reduction of referrals while seven remaining Nursing Colleges are expected be completed during 2022-23.
Hydropower: The J&K government is expected to double the Hydropower Generation Capacity in next 3 years from the existing capacity of 3500 MW. In this regard, 5 Mega Hydro-power projects viz Ratle (824 MW), Kirthai-II (930 MW) Sawalkot (1856 MW), Dulhasti-Stage II (258 MW) and Uri-I Stage-II (240 MW) having total capacity of 4134 MW have been taken-up for execution in collaboration with NHPC. The likely investment in these projects is Rs 34882 crore and on completion will make J&K power surplus.
Ongoing HEPs i.e., Kiru (624 MW), Kawar (540 MW) and Pakaldul (1000 MW) are being developed through Joint Venture. By 2022-23, major civil and electro-mechanical works of these projects will be completed.
The transmission capacity is expected to reach 12655 MVA by March 2022 and the transmission capacity at 220/132 KV level and 132/33 KV level is expected to be increased by 520 MVA and 580 MVA respectively in 2022-23.
Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) a new reforms-based and result-linked scheme introduced by Ministry of Power (GoI) is aimed at reduction of Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses; 100% prepaid metering, besides 6 lakh Smart Pre-paid meters to be installed (3 lakh each in Jammu & Kashmir Divisions).
The coverage of Households with Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) under the flagship programme ‘Jal Jeevan Mission-Har Ghar Jal’ for the remaining Households are targeted to be completed by August 15th, 2022. Besides, all rural households, Community Centers, Ashramshallas and other Government offices will be provided with piped water by August, 2022.
A total of 1,589 Water Supply Schemes are targeted to be completed and balance portion of work on Tawi Barrage costing Rs 73.34 crore is expected to be completed during 2022-23.
Overall, 6000 Kms of black topping of roads have been targeted to be achieved during 2022-23 under various components; 543 new projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2,237 crore to be sanctioned with NABARD funding; maintenance of existing Road Infrastructure and completion of 50 bridges under Central/UT Sector schemes during 2022-23 will ensure better road connectivity across the UT.
Budget component has been kept for the Housing and Urban Development sector to change the landscape of urban J&K.
The project for the Elevated Light Metro Rail System in Jammu & Srinagar is expected to be rolled out in 2022-23 and is likely to be completed by 2026.
A target of scientific disposal of about 850 Metric Ton of waste per day is expected to be achieved by establishment of Solid Waste Management Plant at Srinagar and Jammu cities benefitting nearly 20 Lakh people.
Establishment of decentralized processing facilities in 76 ULBs has been targeted for completion during financial year 2022-23 and 690 Metric Ton of waste generated in ULBs to be scientifically treated benefitting nearly 14 lakh population.
Nine major sewerage schemes at an estimated cost of Rs 1131.07 crore are expected to be executed during 2022-23 benefitting the population of 6,20,565 people.
Under MGNREGA, 426 lakh persondays are expected to be generated; 60,000 job cards to be issued based on demand, and one lakh development works of different nature to be completed.
Targets have been set for constructing 54,000 houses during 2022-23 under PMAY-G; 87250 IHHL and 2,500 Community Sanitary Complexes (CSC) under SBM-G.
Under National Rural Livelihoods Mission, focus are expected to be laid on capacity building, livelihood promotion, convergence and women enterprise planning, besides 21,194 Self Help Groups (SHG) to be formed during 2022-23.
Construction of residential/office accommodation for members of DDCs/BDCs/PRIs has been initiated. A provision of Rs. 176.32 crore has been kept for 2022-23.
As far as education sector is concerned, 500 Kindergartens are expected to be established in government schools; 518 smart/virtual classrooms in higher secondary schools for increasing enrolment, and imparting quality education to students. 200 Vocational Laboratories and 40 schools having vocational labs will act as hubs for imparting vocational/skill training.
A total of 37 Girls Hostel Buildings and 12 KGBV buildings are targetet be completed for improving residential facilities for girls and bringing about desired gender parity in education.
Special attention has been given to the education of tribal students with construction of two residential schools, one each in the districts of Rajouri and Shopian to be taken up, besides 8,000 meritorious tribal students to be given tablets.
A 100% coverage of pre-matric and post-matric scholarship to Tribal students with 100% disbursement through DBT is expected to be accomplished in 2022-23.
The government said that “adequate provision” has been kept for providing incentives to prospective entrepreneurs as per J&K Industrial Policy 2021-30.
An amount of Rs 150 crore has been earmarked for development of New Industrial Estates; Rs 3.91 crore for construction of 7 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) in the existing Industrial Estates and Rs 25 crore for organizing J&K Global Investor’s Summit including domestic/international roadshows.
A total of 1,354 units are targeted to be established under Jammu and Kashmir Rural Employment Generation Programme (J&K-REGP) involving margin money of Rs 25 crore with employment to 8,124 persons in 2022-23 while 2000 Cooperatives/Self Help Groups to be covered under credit card scheme and 7% interest subvention for availing loan upto Rs 2 lakh by artisans under Artisan Credit Card Scheme.
As for the social security of the senior citizens of J&K, old age homes are targeted to be established in all districts and motorized tricycles to be provided to all handicapped persons thereby achieving 100% saturation for which Rs 25 crore have been provisioned.
Transgenders have been for the first time included for pensionary benefits under ISSS.
For the welfare of tribal community, 29 Cluster Model Villages are being established and are at different stages of implementation; establishment of 14 Milk villages and seven transit accommodations/shelter sheds with an estimated cost of Rs 3.50 crore each to be taken up, besides Six Eklavya Model Residential Schools for ST students are being established.
For self-employment opportunities to youth, Rs 200 crore have been kept under “Mission Youth Programme” while an amount of Rs 60 crore has been provisioned as a self employment measure under Youth Start-up/Seed Capital/Women Entrepreneurship Programme (WEP).
Provision has been kept for Digitization of Police Stations and installation of CCTVs in police stations; 10,109 Community/Individual Bunkers are being constructed in the border districts, and e-office will be implemented in all offices of J&K in 2022-23.