Govt: Madhya Pradesh Annual Budget 2024-25: Continuation of previous govt’s policies

Bhopal: The annual budget for 2024-25 presented by Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday is a continuation of the old BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The first budget of the Mohan Yadav government does not suggest any major cuts in any of the ongoing welfare schemes, nor have there been any drastic new schemes. The focus is clear — to keep Dalits, farmers happy and pump money into health, education and infrastructure. After a near standstill in development due to back-to-back Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state, there was a need for a freshness from the Mohan Yadav government that could give a boost to job creation and employment opportunities for the youth. In this regard, the FM has failed. In the health sector, three new medical colleges have been proposed to be opened from this year, taking the number of medical colleges in the state from five in 2004 to 14. While the number has almost tripled, the government has announced the setting up of several new medical colleges in the districts in the run-up to the November Assembly elections. However, the situation in most of the new medical colleges is bleak — students are struggling with poor infrastructure, lack of staff and resources. Instead of adding new colleges, improving the staff ratio and academic facilities would help a lot. The same is true in the health sector. While the allocation for the public health sector has been increased, its effective monitoring and service delivery needs a lot of work. Due to delays in appointment of doctors, nursing staff, paramedics in district and civil hospitals and health centres besides medical colleges and referral hospitals, the health infrastructure in the state is crumbling. While public health is not able to meet the expectations of the growing population, the private sector is flourishing. Similarly, the FM has announced the setting up of three more universities. But are universities needed now? Or do we need to regulate what we have at hand and make it efficient? The irony is that unregulated colleges, both in the public and private sectors, produce graduates year after year who are neither industry ready nor are there any suitable industries in the state to support them in upskilling. The emphasis has been on infrastructure development. The Bhopal and Indore metro projects were among the oldest metro projects to have been conceived in the country but are yet to see the light of day. Delays have made traffic in both cities a nightmare. Barring the period of 1993-98, the condition of roads in Bhopal has never been worse. The much-talked-about religious trek—the Ram Van Gaman Trail—is resurrected during every election but in almost two decades of BJP rule, it has made no headway. Again, it finds a mention in the state budget along with Krishna Path Yojna and Veedant Peeth. The allocation for making Bhopal a sports hub was made in the last budget and is just a reiteration of it. No tangible progress has been made. When it comes to industrialisation, the less said, the better. The state basks in the glory of MoUs worth lakhs of crores, most of which are yet to become a reality on the ground. Protectionist policies, lack of trained and skilled manpower, and the government’s reluctance to facilitate business by doing away with cumbersome approval procedures have proved to be a major hurdle when it comes to big investments. With limited resources and little manoeuvrability, the FM has charted out a roadmap, making it clear that continuity is key and nothing drastic should be expected. Let us wait and see how the government shapes up to deliver what it has promised, especially in terms of investment, infrastructure and fiscal prudence.