Hon'ble Speaker Sir, I Rise Before This August House of Glorious Gujarat To
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Hon’ble Speaker Sir, I rise before this august House of glorious Gujarat to present the Budget for the year 2008-09 with an overwhelming feeling of joy. I have had the privilege to present the Budget for twelve times in the past and I feel honoured to have this opportunity once again. By mentioning the number of opportunities, I want to convey that the people of Gujarat appreciate the importance of stable governance. Gujarat has captured the imagination of the country and the world with its development. Such development is based on stability in governance, clarity in policy and the objective to achieve the goal. The political and social currents in Gujarat show that the common man of the State has faith in development as well as in our resolve and efforts in achieving it. Every citizen wants to participate in the process of development; because he feels that he is a beneficiary in the comprehensive development process. The response received from the people of Gujarat has encouraged our government to further enhance the already extended canvass of development. Gujarat is going to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of its formation in the year 2010 and I express my desire before this august House that it will display more than the required commitment to convert this occasion into an opportunity for development. Such commitment by this House, which would be a ray of hope for five and a half crore Gujaratis, will form an emotional bond with the common man and help us in marching ahead for the progress of one and all. Let the government and the society in the coming days, evolve golden resolutions that may transform the celebration of the golden jubilee into an invaluable event for the development of the entire State, rather remaining merely a government programme. Our golden dreams could be realized through such golden objectives if each government department and every social and cultural organizations/agencies resolve in this direction. The challenge is big; but with the confidence that this august House will accept it, I am happy to present this progressive and people oriented Budget. The report on Human Development Index (HDI) prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which essentially includes Infant Mortality Rate, Literacy Rate, School Enrolment Rate as well as Per Capita Income, ranks India at 128. When we talk about the 21st century being the century of India, it becomes our duty to uplift the country from this unenviable condition. We must do something concrete in this direction as far as Gujarat is concerned. When we state that the development process in the State will be in the direction of improving the HDI, it is very important to note that we intend to endeavour for collective development. We plan to undertake a process of development that may improve the standard of living of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Developing Castes, Women etc. In short, we intend to achieve not only speedy development; but we also want to ensure that this developmental process results in “Inclusive Growth” and also proves beneficial on a large scale by providing equal opportunities to all. Hon’ble Speaker Sir, we intend to increase rural prosperity through agricultural development; create employment opportunities through industrial development and increase the momentum of development through infrastructural facilities and simultaneously want to take a firm step ahead to put Gujarat at par with the developed countries in terms of HDI. To improve the standard of living of the common man, our endeavour is to improve the HDI by satisfying the basic human needs by providing nutritious diet, pure drinking water, extension of quality education and expansion of health facilities. In the past, inspite of awareness of the Government and the society, the drop-out rate in primary schools was a cause of concern. However, due to our efforts by the way of an intensive enrollment campaign, the drop-out rate, which was 20.5 per cent in 2000-01, has significantly come down to almost 3 per cent. We have been able to save the lives of mothers and infants and look after their health care through the ‘Chiranjeevi Yojana’. The ‘Beti Bachavo Campaign’ has had a positive impact in improving the skewed sex ratio. All these have become possible because the development process has been transformed into a people’s campaign. If such encouraging achievements could be attained in such difficult areas, the possibility of Gujarat becoming the best in terms of HDI in future, can also be transformed into a reality. 2 State’s Annual The Annual Plan size for the year 2008-09 is fixed at Rs. 19,030 Plan crore. Head-wise allocation is as under:- (Rs. in crore) Sr. No. Head Allocation 1. Agriculture and Allied Services 12,49.65 2. Rural Development 6,71.96 3. Special Areas Programme 24.20 4. Irrigation and Flood Control 50,70.20 5. Energy 7,50.50 6. Industries and Minerals 7,62.66 7. Transport 17,31.70 8. Science, Technology and Environment 1,14.00 9. General Economic Services 4,47.65 10. Social Services 81,71.42 11. General Services 36.06 Total 1,90,30.00 While making allocation, priority is given to “social services”. An amount of Rs. 8171.42 crore is being allocated to various heads of social services such as Health, Education, Drinking Water, Housing, Nutrition, Social Welfare, Women and Child Development etc. An amount of Rs. 3,255 crore is allocated for the Sardar Sarovar Project and Rs. 817.54 crore for Sujalam Sufalam Yojana, totaling Rs. 4072.54 crore with the objective of making available drinking water to the entire population of the State and water to the farmers of the State for irrigation from Narmada. An amount of Rs. 671.96 crore is allocated for the year 2008-09 for rural development. An amount of Rs. 266.54 crore is allocated for decentralized district planning while an amount of Rs. 1501 crore is allocated for the development of roads and bridges in the State. State’s In all the Five Year Plans from 1960 to 2007 put together, Gujarat Economic was able to spend about Rs. 1,03,619 crore. Compared to this, government Growth has allocated Rs. 1,06,918 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan alone. This itself speaks volumes of the quantum leap Gujarat has taken, and how well equipped it is to progress further. Marching ahead with the mantra of national development, Gujarat will take up this challenge also. 3 As against the annual plan size of Rs. 16000 crore in the year 2007- 08, a provision of Rs. 19,030 crore has been made for the ensuing year; this shows an increase of 18.93 per cent. For the 10th plan period, Gujarat had estimated a growth rate of 10.2 per cent, which was as challenging as the best growth rates in Asia. Notwithstanding several hurdles, Gujarat has achieved an average growth rate of 10.4 per cent during the last five years, thus catapulting Gujarat to the forefront in the country. For the 11th Plan period, a challenging target of attaining 11.2 per cent growth rate has been set, which is the highest among all major states of the country. The advance estimates for the year 2007-08 indicate that Gujarat is already moving towards achieving a growth rate of 11.3 per cent (at constant prices). During the year 2006-07, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the State was estimated at Rs. 2,54,533 crore which shows an increase of 15.81 per cent as compared to the revised estimate of Rs. 2,19,780 crore for the year 2005-06. The advance estimates for the year 2007-08 indicate that the GDP at current prices will be Rs. 2,92,905 crore showing a 15.08 per cent increase. Nirmal Realizing the need for sanitation for peoples’ well-being, government Gujarat had launched the “Nirmal Gujarat” campaign. There are encouraging results from this mission during the current year, as there has been a significant decrease in epidemics, which generally manifest after heavy rains. With a view to making this mission more intensive and effective, a provision of Rs. 261 crore has been proposed, with an increase of 55 per cent against last year’s provision of Rs. 168 crore. ‘Nirogi Balak’ It is especially heartening to state that our government has decided to Year celebrate the year 2008 as “Healthy Child” (Nirogi Balak) year. It has been planned to bring down the infant mortality rate during this campaign. With a view to realizing the concept of healthy child in terms of physical, mental and social health, it has been planned to cover the period from conception to adolescence. It has also been planned to give special attention to pre-natal care of mothers, comprehensive vaccination, monitoring the growth of child, adequate nutrition, health check-up and protection for the proper physical and mental development of child. Education Considering the importance of imparting education to the future generation, government has been providing the necessary hardware and software. For example, apart from increasing the number of schools and class rooms, 35946 sanitation complexes have also been built. A big task of appointing 83,000 Vidya Sahayaks has been accomplished and a provision 4 for appointing another 11,000 Vidya Sahayaks has been made in this Budget. As a result of the inputs provided, the drop-out rate in primary schools has come down to about 3% and an enrolment rate as high as about 99% has been achieved.