Presenting a populist budget ahead of the 2023 State Assembly election, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday announced restoration of the old pension scheme for the government employees who joined the service on or after January 1, 2004. No new taxes were levied in the budget in view of the pandemic’s impact on all sectors of economic activities.
Mr. Gehlot said the National Pension Scheme (NPS), introduced in 2004, had led to apprehensions among the employees about their security in old age. “Bringing back the old scheme is a historic decision. The then Union government might have brought the NPS for some strong reasons, but we need to consider it again,” he said.
Mr. Gehlot, who also holds the finance portfolio, told reporters after presenting the budget that other States should also think on the NPS in a new perspective. The contribution-based NPS is a major issue in the ongoing Assembly elections in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling BJP has been caught in a difficult situation after the Samajawadi Party and other Opposition ensembles made promises on retirement benefits.
The Chief Minister also rolled back a decision of the previous BJP regime in 2017 to cut the salaries of employees, which had created a discrepancy in the assured career progression. The budgetary announcement for restoration of the next grade pay system will put an annual burden of ₹1,000 crore on the State government from 2022-23.
Rajasthan Karmachari Samyukta Mahasangh president Gajendra Singh welcomed the decision to discontinue the NPS, saying it would benefit over 4 lakh employees who were agitating on the issue for several years.
Mr. Gehlot also announced an increase in the number of promotional posts and extension of benefits of the Seventh Pay Commission to the employees of boards, corporations, universities and autonomous bodies.
In his three-hour-long speech, Mr. Gehlot announced new measures for welfare of different sections of society with the focus on health, education, infrastructure, social security and tourism. He also presented the first-ever agriculture budget separately, with a provision of ₹5,000 crore for Krishak Sathi Yojana and adoption of mission mode for 11 thematic areas.
The budget proposed an increase in the health cover under the ambitious Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh per year per family and free-of-cost IPD and OPD services in the government health facilities. The State government will also spend ₹4,500 crore on giving power tariff subsidy to the consumers in different slabs.
The Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme will be launched to provide 100 days of employment on lines of the rural employment guarantee scheme with a budget outlay of ₹800 crore, while the work for 125 days instead of the earlier 100 days will be provided under the latter.
A Right to Service Guarantee and Accountability Bill will also be brought shortly in the State, for which the civil rights groups have been agitating since long.
Mr. Gehlot proposed to conduct the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) in July following its recent cancellation because of a controversy over the leak of its question paper. An anti-cheating cell would be set up in the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police, Mr. Gehlot said.
Reacting to the budget, BJP State president Satish Poonia said though several announcements were made in the health and education sectors, there were no sincere efforts to develop their infrastructure. “It is difficult to understand what will be the financial source of budgetary provisions. The government claims that its manifesto promises and previous budgetary announcements have been fulfilled, but the situation on the ground is different,” he said.
All the 200 MLAs were given an Apple iPhone–13 each along with the copies of budget after Mr. Gehlot’s speech in the House. An iPhone operating system-based mobile app of the Assembly was earlier launched for the convenience of the legislators, who could use it for accessing questions, motions, Bills, agenda, session review, business rules and the proceedings.
