Rajasthan Finance Minister Diya Kumari Presents Maiden Budget For FY 2024-25: Key Highlights

As Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister, Diya Kumari, who also holds the Finance portfolio presented her maiden budget for the year 2024-25, the highlights of the budget were 4 lakh vacancies promised by the Bhajan Lal Sharma government to be filled in the next five years, Rs 20,370 crore for six projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) besides a comprehensive tourism and sports policy.

Jaipur (Rajasthan):Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari on Wednesday presented the state budget for the financial year 2024-25 promising to fill 4 lakh vacancies in the next five years of the government besides proposing Rs 27,000 crore for the health sector and Rs 15,000 crore to provide tap water to 25 lakh rural houses to tackle water crisis in the state.

This is the first budget of the Bhajan Lal Sharma led BJP government in the state after coming to power earlier this year. Kumari presented the budget two days after the Vote on Account (Interim Budget) in the assembly on February 8.

Here are the major takeaways of Diya Kumari's maiden budget:

10 Lakh Jobs: Kumari, in her bid to reach out to the unemployed youth let down by the frequent paper leaks in the state said that four lakh vacancies will be filled in the state in the five-year tenure of the BJP government adding a policy is being framed in this regard. Besides the vacancies, Kumari said a youth policy will be framed to provide more than 10 lakh new employment opportunities.

Water Supply Projects In Rural Areas: Kumari said that the government has proposed Rs 20,370 crore for six projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) which would benefit over nearly 6000 villages in the state. The Finance Minister also proposed Rs 187 crore to be spent on small drinking water projects. Kumari said that the previous government had “shown indifference in the works of this mission, due to which the state has suffered and lakhs of houses were deprived of the benefits”. She said that under AMRUT 2.0 scheme, Rs 5180 crore will be spent to improve the drinking water system in 183 cities and towns and the work will be completed in two years.

Budget Allocation For Health Sector: Kumari said that the government has proposed to spend a whopping Rs 27,660 crore, accounting for 8.2% of the state's total budget for health sector to ensure better health-care for the people of the state.

Khatu Shyam Ji Temple Corridor: The Finance Minister said that Rs 100 crore have been allocated for the development of the Khatu Shyam Ji temple corridor in the state in a bid to boost religious tourism.

Sports Policy 2024: Finance Minister Diya Kumari said that Sports Policy 2024 will be introduced in the state to encourage sportspersons. Along with this, academies will be opened for sports in every district, she said.

New Tourism Policy: Finance Minister Diya Kumari said that a new tourism policy will be framed to boost tourism and art culture in the state. She said that the government is planning to launch projects worth Rs 5000 with Rs 100 crore to be spent for the development of Jaipur Heritage area.

It is worth mentioning here that the first full budget of the BJP government comes ahead of the by-elections to be held on five seats of the Legislative Assemblies.

After the budget 2024-25 was finalized on Tuesday, Finance Minister Diya Kumari handed over the copy of the budget to Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma where Additional Chief Secretary Akhil Arora, Secretary (Budget) Devashish Prasti. Secretary (Revenue) KK Pathak, Secretary (Expenditure) Naresh Kumar Thakral and Director (Budget) Brijesh Sharma were present.