The Chief Minister presented his fifth successive budget

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday presented a 1.89 lakh crore state budget for the 2024-25. The Chief Minister presented his fifth successive budget. Manohar Lal Khattar said that the outlay was 11.37 percent higher than the 2023-24 revised estimates of Rs 1,70,490 crore. 

As per the Chief Minister, the revenue expenditure in 2024-25 is estimated to be Rs 1,34,456 crore which is significantly higher than the Rs 1,26,071 crore revenue expenditure, committed by him in the 2023-24 budget estimates.

While presenting the state's budget, Manohar Lal 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 Rs 1 lakh.

The Chief Minister also announced waiver of interest and penalty on the payment of the principal amount of agricultural loans that were availed by the farmers till September 2023. Reportedly, the facility of waiver would be made available till May this year.

He further said that 21 vegetables and fruit crops have been included in the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana to mitigate the farmers’ risk. Additionally, he said that stubble burning incidents in the state had witnessed a drop by 67 percent in Haryana in the past two years.

He also introduced drone didis (sisters) on the pattern of a scheme which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last year. CM Khattar said that 550 women and self-help groups will be provided with training for assisting farmers with drone services for agriculture purposes.

CM Manohar Khattar also announced a Rs 10-crore start-up fund in order to promote manufacturing of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. He added that the fund will be notified by the industry and commerce departments.

CM also proposed setting up six botanical gardens in the state.

Besides, an allocation for the sports sector would be increased to Rs 578 crore in the 2024-25 financial year while it was Rs 432 crore in 2023-24. The chief minister has also proposed 400 new sports nurseries, 2 high-performance centres for boxing and wrestling that will be established in Panipat and Sonepat in 2024-25, respectively.

The financial compensation for families of martyred soldiers has been increased from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Similarly, the monthly allowance of Rs 25,000 for freedom fighters would be increased to Rs 40,000.