Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday presented the state budget on the principle of 'Panchamrut'. The budget stresses on benefits to farmers, women, youth, and employment. Fadnavis, who is also the Finance Minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government presented his first Budget for the year.
During his presentation, Fadnavis said that the outlay for farmers has been increased by Rs 6,900 crore and the coverage of the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya scheme, a health insurance scheme of the government, has been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Fadnavis also announced women's scheme, under which a girl child from BPL families will be given Rs 75,000 till she attains the age of 18.
Also, farmers in 14 suicide districts is set to get cash benefit of Rs 1,800 per year. Under PM Kisan Yojana, Rs 6,000 annual cash benefit to 1.15 crore farmers were announced by the Fadnavis. State will also bear the burden of Rs 6,900 crore a year for the scheme.
Mediclaim cover given to BPL families under Mahatma Phule Jivandayee Yojana has been increased to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh.
The state government has also announced Rs 5 lakh insurance cover to fisherfolk.
Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar, the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly alleged that a scam of Rs 500 crore took place in the state Information and Publicity Department during the tenure of the government led by Devendra Fadnavis.
The Information and Publicity Department is handled by the chief minister. From 2014-19, BJP-Shiv Sena (undivided) ruled the state.
He said that the government officials gave approval to publish media advertisements worth more than Rs 500 crore in 2019 without the sanction from the chief minister. Pawar demanded incumbent CM Eknath Shinde to punish the officials involved in the scam.
Speaking in the Assembly, the senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader said, "The officials had mentioned in the file that the chief minister had been informed about the expenditure of Rs 500 crore for publishing advertisements without actually taking a sanction from him," reported PTI.
"In 2019-20, the government had withheld the payment of these advertisement bills since there was no approval. But now the present government has given orders to make the payments. This is serious and the government shouldn't support such activities," Pawar said.
"Such culprits should be punished with suspension. The chief minister's approval is mandatory for media advertisements. In this case, approval was given for advertisements of more than Rs 500 crore without the sanction from the chief minister during the election year 2019," he claimed.
Without naming Brijesh Singh, who was the director general of the information and publicity department in 2019, Pawar said the probe into the approval of advertisements conducted under former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray indicted the then principal secretary social justice and DG of information and publicity, who is now with the chief minister's office as principal secretary, reported PTI.
The probe report had also said that all departments should get the sanction of the chief secretary, the minister concerned and the deputy chief minister, who holds the finance department, Pawar added.