Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu presents FY24 budget in state assembly

PTI, Mar 17, 2023, 12:18 PM IST

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday presented the first annual budget in his tenure for the financial year 2023-24 in the state assembly.

The chief minister announced that Himachal Pradesh will be made the model state for adopting electrical vehicles in the state’s public transport.

A total of 1,500 diesel buses will be replaced at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, he said.

In order to boost tourism, Sikhu said that Kangra district will be developed as the tourist capital and all 12 districts will be connected with heliport facility in the next one year.

The growth of state’s GDP has remained sluggish during 2022-23 and dropped to 6.4 per cent as compared to 7.6 per cent growth recorded in 2021-22.

”We have come to work for the welfare of the people and have restored old pension scheme benefiting about 1.36 employees of the state,” he said.

The state faces huge debt of Rs 75,000 crore and other liabilities on account of payment of arrears of revised pay scales and DA amounting Rs 11,000 crore.

The supplementary demands for grants for 2022-23 amounting to Rs 13,141 crore were passed by the house on March 15.

The chief minister said that his government will fulfil all the promises made to the people during elections in a phased manner.

In the first phase, 2,31,000 women will get Rs 1,500 per month as promised, he said, adding that the payout will cost Rs 416 crore per year to the exchequer.

The chief minister also announced measures to improve healthcare facility in the state.

Casualty wards in all medical colleges will be upgraded to emergency medicine department and all the five medical colleges will have robotic technology, he said.