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Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Diya Kumari presented the Budget for 2025-26 on Wednesday. The budget focuses on roads, tourism, employment, and green energy, among other things.
Emphasizing employment, the Rajasthan finance minister proposed recruiting 1.25 lakh individuals in various departments and state undertakings in the upcoming financial year. On infrastructure, she proposed works of State highways, bypass roads, flyovers, and ROBs/RUBs worth more than Rs 5,000 crore. Works amounting to Rs 60,000 crore for nine green field expressways have been proposed, Works amounting to Rs 6,000 crore for 21,000 km of non-patchable roads in a phased manner have been proposed. Additionally, Rs 575 crore has been put aside for various road works in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Ajmer. For Jaipur Metro, Rs 12,000 crore has been allocated for works between Sitapura Industrial Area to Ambawari and Vidhyadhar Nagar (Todi Mod), and DPR for Jagatpura and Vaishali Nagar area. The finance minister made provision for free solar plants and 150 electricity units per month, besides proposing community solar plants for low-income group families. In 2025-26, 20 lac households would be provided with piped water connections.In the industrial development space, the Rajasthan government announced a 'Single Window - One Stop Shop', which will facilitate as many as 149 online permissions; PMU for effective co-ordination for MoUs executed during Rising Rajasthan Summit. A Global Capability Centre (GCC) policy has been proposed to generate employment and stimulate investment in the service sector, in addition to the Rajasthan Trade Promotion Policy for the development of the trading sector. A toy park will be established in Kota, stone parks in Nimbahera and Bundi, a ceramic park in Soniyana, and a pharmaceutical park in Sanganer. Moving on to tourism, art and culture, the finance minister indicated in her Budget that the state will host the IIFA Awards in Jaipur on March 8-9, 2025. Tourism infrastructure development works amounting to Rs 975 crore will be taken into consideration -- 10 sites to be developed as Iconic Tourist Destinations for promoting Heritage Tourism. A tribal tourist circuit will be built for Rs 100 crore. Further, the state government proposes setting up an Aero City near the Kota airport, development works on 29 airstrips, flying training organizations in Pratapgarh, Jhalawar, Jhunjhunu; hop-on hop-off bus service in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur. Moving on to the education sector, the Rajasthan government proposed setting up eight new ITIs, modernization of 36 it is; setting up three new polytechnic colleges, 11 colleges, 9 girls colleges, 2 agriculture colleges; Sainik school at Mirjewala, Shriganganagar; Sainik schools for girls at Alwar, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Kota. CCTV cameras would be installed in 15,000 schools, besides Atal Tinkering Labs in 1,500 schools. For wheat farmers, the state government proposed that it would provide Rs 150 as a bonus per quintal above the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Earlier, the bonus was Rs 125 per quintal. Farmers would be provided a Rs 2,500 per hectare subsidy for Nano Urea and Nano DAP. Milk plants would be set up at Alwar, Udaipur, Banswara, Bharatpur, and Sawai Madhopur. To balance industrial development and environmental conservation, a Green Growth Credit policy to be formulated to provide incentives to new and existing investors on utilising/manufacturing Ecomark-based green technology/ goods. The Budget presented today put a special focus on Climate Change Adaptation, Forest and Environment - Biodiversity/ Ecology, Sustainable Agriculture, Water Harvesting /Recharge, Sustainable land use, Green Energy, Recycling and Waste Disposal - Circular Economy, Clean Tech Development, Green Audit, Capacity Building-Education, Skilling and, and Green Funding. A Centre of Excellence for climate change will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore. The state government also decided to plant 10 crore trees. In a boost to sustainability, the subsidy would be provided to 2.5 lakh farmers for natural farming. Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma said that the Budget 2025-26 has fulfilled about 58 per cent of the promises his party made in the manifesto before the Assembly polls. He said this Budget will ensure the overall and sustainable development of the state. Describing the budget as dedicated to public interest and development-oriented, he said that concrete provisions have been made in the fields of education, health, agriculture, employment and infrastructure, which will ensure the overall development of the state. "The state government will work with the target of providing drinking water to 20 lakh houses in the coming year. Chief Minister Jal Jeevan Mission Urban will be started to provide tap water to every home in urban areas. In this, work will be done for Rs 5,830 crore," the chief minister said. Sharma said that Rajasthan has also now joined the select states of the country to present a green budget. To encourage a sustainable green system, deal with the challenges of climate change, encourage biodiversity, water harvesting, green energy, recycling, etc., 11.34 per cent of the state budget would be utilised for green purposes. Talking to ANI, the deputy chief minister Diya Kumari said, "We have focused on health...solar plants...green budget. We are working to employ the youth. We have announced the tribal circuit to increase tourism around the region of Banswada...The centre has also helped us a lot with the funds..." Asked how her government will ensure that the announcements are fulfilled, given the state has limited resources, she said, "We are fully prepared. The Centre has also helped us in this regard. Rajasthan has received a very good amount of special assistance from the Centre. Our refinery is also going to start very soon. You must have noticed that no freebies were announced in this Budget. We have prepared a Budget thoughtfully and we have prepared this budget to build a self-reliant Rajasthan." (ANI)
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