Budget growing in size, shrinking in spend, says Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav described the UP Budget 2026-27 as BJP's ‘last and farewell' Budget. He presented statistics to claim that the govt was unable to spend even half of the last Budget in key sectors as a result of which the per capita income of UP remained the second lowest in the country after Bihar. "To achieve the 1 trillion-dollar economy dream, UP's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has to be Rs 90 lakh crore with a growth rate of 30%. Since it is the last Budget, how will the BJP govt achieve this goal of a 1 trillion-dollar economy?," Akhilesh asked. Stating that the growing size of the Budget becomes meaningless if the amount allocated is left unspent at the end of the year, Akhilesh said in most of the key sectors the govt could spend barely 50% of the Budget allocation. "Of the total allocation for the Agri sector only 57% was spent in the current fiscal. Total allocation's 36% was spent on rural development. Similarly, only 60% of the budget allocated for the animal husbandry department, 58% for health and 53% of the allocation for women welfare were spent. The rest is left unspent," Akhilesh said. Taking a dig at the BJP govt for citing per capita income figures in isolation, Akhilesh said what the govt has not told the people was the fact that UP's per capita income was the second lowest of all the states in UP after Bihar. "While giving details of the per capita income the govt must also give details of the per capita income of the crores of poor people who are being given free ration. I can guarantee the govt will not give these figures," he said. Calling the govt's claims in the Budget speech as misleading, Akhilesh said the govt only talks of MoUs worth Rs 50 lakh crore being signed. What the govt never talks about is the amount of investment that has hit the ground running, he said. "If we go by the statistics of the govt and those of Invest UP, this govt has been able to bring a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in the past 10 years and even this investment is not visible on ground. Questioning the silence of the govt over strategy to double farmers income as promised by the BJP in 2017, Akhilesh said the Budget was directionless about addressing unemployment which has left the youth disappointed and hopeless. "The trade deal with the US will impact the farmers the most, but the Budget has made no provisions to address their concerns," the former UP CM said. Talking about the Industries, Akhilesh said as many as 82 lakh MSMEs in the state are not registered as a result of which benefits of govt schemes are not reaching them and the Budget has no provisions to talk about these MSMEs. The SP chief dwelt in detail about what he described as the "sorry state of affairs at the health sector" where incidents like Codeine drug racket and adulterated cheap quality liv-52 tablets talking their toll on the poor and the govt turning a blind eye to such rackets. "How much has the govt allocated for the two AIIMS in UP?," he asked.