Whooping Rs 1.18 lakh Cr budget holds much to cater to youth aspirations, women empowerment: BJP

JAMMU, March 19: Senior Advocate Abhinav Sharma, Spokesperson BJP J&K on Sunday asserted that the whooping budget of Rs 1,18,500 crore presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman holds much for employment generation, women empowerment, and catering to youths aspirations besides extraordinary provisions made for promotion of agriculture sector.

The BJP leader was addressing a “Budget Pe Charcha” programme organised at BJP Headquarters in context with J&K Budget 2023 presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The programme was attended by a large number of Yuva Morcha and Mahila Morcha activists. Arun Gupta, Spokesperson and Sanjita Dogra, President J&K Mahila Morcha were also present.

Going by these figures and others after briefing the gathering about the important features of this vital financial document meant for J&K’s progress, Abhinav spoke how this budget is more futuristic than the previous one. He said that for youth empowerment, employment, entrepreneurship, skill development and sports activities, an allocation of nearly Rs 396.63 crore has been made under Capital Expenditure for the year 2023-24. He said that enough planning and thought had been applied to create an overall well-planned and futuristic budget that would give impetus to economic growth of Jammu and Kashmir keeping in mind that women should be part of every aspect of the growth graph making this endeavour women centric at all levels.

The senior BJP leader said that tax/GDP ratio is projected at 8.82 percent for 2023-24, which is higher than the previous year of 7.77 percent and the debt/GDP ratio for 2023-24 is 49 percent and GDP growth for the year 2023-24 has been projected at Rs 2,30,727 crore which shows a growth of 10 percent over the previous year.

Abhinav said that the J&K Budget has given much significance towards women empowerment with Ladies Hatt, women Markets, Pink Taxi as its main highlights. He asserted that the Modi Government has done a lot for the women by initiating several schemes like Ujjawala Yojana, Sukanya scheme, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme, One Stop Centre Scheme, Women Helpline Scheme, UJJAWALA, Nari Shakti Puraskar, Tripple Talaq, 33 per cent reservation in politics for women, Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK), Nirbhaya and a lot more since 2014. He asserted that the Modi Government stands fully committed to empowerment of women across the nation.

The BJP Spokesperson said that the Finance Minister took some significant steps to create more avenues for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. He said first time in the history Rs 900 cr has kept for Holistic Agriculture Development Scheme which will give new direction to the agriculture and its allied sector by creating several new opportunities for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, Rs 200 cr kept for Mission Youth programme and near about 40 Employment Melas will be organized in Jammu and Srinagar, he added.

Abhinav asked the participants of the programme to disseminate information about the budget among the people and make people aware about improvements made in the present budget as compared to the previous one.