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Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday presented a ₹1,89,876 crore outlay for the 2024-25 budget.
Presenting his fifth successive budget, Khattar, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that the outlay was 11.37% higher than the 2023-24 revised estimates of ₹1,70,490 crore. The revised outlay is down from the ₹1,83,950 crore outlay promised by Khattar in his 2023-24 budget estimates.
The chief minister said that the revenue expenditure in 2024-25 is estimated to be ₹1,34,456 crore. This is significantly higher than the ₹1,26,071 crore revenue expenditure committed by him in the 2023-24 budget estimates.
Khattar announced that the government would provide 1,000 kilometres of free travel in Haryana Roadways buses to 84 lakh people having an annual income of ₹1 lakh.
The CM announced waiver of interest and penalty on the payment of the principal amount of agricultural loans availed by farmers till September 2023. The facility of waiver will be available till May this year.
He said 21 vegetables and fruit crops have been included in the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana to reduce farmers’ risk. The CM said that stubble burning incidents in the state had dropped by 67% in Haryana in the past two years.
He announced the introduction of drone didis (sisters) on the pattern of a scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. Khattar said that 550 women and self-help groups will be trained for providing drone services to farmers for agriculture purposes.
The chief minister announced a ₹10-crore start-up fund to promote manufacturing of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. The fund will be notified by the industry and commerce departments.
He proposed setting up six botanical gardens in the state.
The allocation for the sports sector would be increased to ₹578 crore in the 2024-25 financial year from ₹432 crore in 2023-24. He proposed 400 new sports nurseries, two high-performance centres for boxing and wrestling in Panipat and Sonepat in 2024-25.
The financial compensation for families of soldiers who die in the line of duty was increased from ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore.
The CM announced that the monthly allowance of ₹25,000 for freedom fighters will be increased to ₹40,000.
Khattar said that from April 1 this year, abiana (service charge) levied on consumption of canal water will cease to exist. This will give a relief of ₹54 crore annually to users of canal water in 4,299 villages. Abiana levied on canal water, however, has not been recovered by successive governments for years.
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