Finance Minister Shri OP Chaudhary’s Budget Speech: Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, 03 March 2025

Honourable Mr. President,

Expressing his deep respect for our Chhattisgarh, Ashutosh, a young talent currently serving in his assembly, wrote –

“Someone who asks is the equivalent of bravery,

Someone who asks for equality,

Someone who asks Ram-Rama’s synonym,

Mr President,

Swami Vivekananda, the cultural pioneer of modern India, spent most of his time after Calcutta in this land.

In this land, in the hills of Ramgarh, Kalidas created Meghdoot, the symbol of love.

It is in this land that Mukutdhar Pandey wrote the first poem of Chhayaavad and Madhvarao Sapre wrote the first story of Hindi.

It was the love and undying love of Mother Shabri that made Lord Rama, the ruler of the three worlds, feel the ultimate satisfaction in eating juthe berries.

I bow down to my soil of Chhattisgarh. And I bow to the three crore great people of this great Chhattisgarh and do Ram-Ram, I salute them.

Mr. Speaker, the foundation of democracy is trust. Faith is the pillar of democracy. The previous government had killed this belief in democracy. This trust was hurt. After overcoming this crisis of trust in the face of democracy in Chhattisgarh, our government under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Vishnudev Saiji established the first year of its tenure as the “Year of Trust”. He showed the courage to present his report card in front of the public by celebrating “Janadesh परब” on completion of one year of his tenure.

The people of Chhattisgarh-Janaardan have shown their unwavering faith by repeatedly blessing these sincere efforts of our government. Whether it is the time of Lok Sabha elections, the occasion of by-elections or the matter of putting unilateral stamp on local body elections. The people of Chhattisgarh broke all the records. 10 में से 10 Municipal Corporations में शीत डालायी People also responded by stamping those who made the excuse of EVM.

On the other hand, I would also like to thank the people of the entire country, who have blessed the influential and strong leadership of Narendra Modi ji with their unwavering faith. Shri Narendra Modi ji completely destroyed the political concept of anti-incumbency prevalent in Indian politics and gave a new word to Indian politics and democratic countries of the world, that is pro-incumbency. Modi ji is the only other Prime Minister of the country who has been sworn in three times consecutively. For 24 consecutive years after 2001, he has been either the Chief Minister of the state or the Chief Prime Minister of the nation. Apart from this, the recent successes of Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi are constantly repeating the story of unwavering faith shown by the people of different regions of India towards Modi.

On the strength of these two engines, the vehicle that is running for developed India and developed Chhattisgarh has got a third engine in the recent local elections in Chhattisgarh and this vehicle is now ready to run at a faster speed.

This year is very important in the life of our Chhattisgarh. Our state is celebrating its Rajya Jayanti year. After being born in the year 2000, our Chhattisgarh has reached its youth. The age of 25 is the time of maximum energy in the life of a person, organization or state. Today the average age of the people of our state is only 24 years, which is much less than the average age of the people of the country is 28 years. Mr. President, Chhattisgarh has made rapid progress under your leadership for 15 of these 25 years and now we are working to take the state to new heights under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Vishnu Dev Saiji.

The GDP of our state was only 21 thousand crore rupees in the year 2000, now we have crossed the GDP of 5 lakh crores. Per capita income has increased from Rs 10 thousand to Rs 1.5 lakh. We have increased the number of universities from 4 to 25.

Sir, when our state of Chhattisgarh was formed, then-even then our batch passed 12th standard, my friend’s rank in state PMT was in double digit, but he could not even get MBBS seat, because at that time there was only one medical college in the state. Due to the special efforts of our party governments, the number of medical colleges has reached 14. We have also doubled the length of national highways, state highways and railway lines in these 25 years. At the time of the establishment of the state, only 6 flights used to arrive in Raipur, today there are 76 flights. At that time no one could even think of an airport in Bastar Sarguja but because of Modi ji’s flight plan this also became possible. The total number of bank branches in the state used to be only 1500 which we have increased to 6500. We have increased the number of government employees from 2 lakh to 4 lakh. Paddy procurement of only 5 lakh metric tonnes has now reached close to 1 crore 50 lakh metric tonnes. We have succeeded in increasing the power generation of 7300 MW to 18,000 MW, making Chhattisgarh a power surplus state. At the time of establishment in the year 2000, there was not a single national level institute in our capital Raipur or in the whole state, today our Raipur is probably the only capital city where IIM, AIIMS, NIT, IIIT, CIPET and National Law University HNLU are also there.

Mr. Speaker, this progress story of Chhattisgarh makes me happy on one hand, while on the other hand the desire of development and better future of Chhattisgarh does not let me be satisfied, but inspires me to work with more energy.

Mr. President, the successful Prime Minister of the country Hon’ble Shri Narendra Modi ji has said that “There comes a stage in the life of any nation, when the nation can make rapid progress in its development journey and for India this Amritkal is going on, which is the period in the history of India, when the country is going to take a long leap.”

Hon’ble Prime Minister ji has set the ambitious goal of developing the country till the Amritkal of the country’s independence @ 2047, for its fulfillment it is necessary that Chhattisgarh also contributes equally to this initiative of nation building and fulfills the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister ji. It is equally important for the 3 crore people of our Chhattisgarh.

Mr. President, we have also made a road map document “Chhattisgarh Anjor Vision-2047” to make our state a developed state. This vision document is not a pipe dream but a vibrant journey to realize the aspirations, hopes and prosperity of the people of Chhattisgarh. It is not just any official document made in official manner. We have given it a concrete form by consulting all sections of the state, because we believe that the form of developed Chhattisgarh should not be decided by the government only but it should be inspired by public sentiments.

Our vision document includes short-term, medium-term and long-term goals and strategies to achieve them. Every budget of our government will also be a form of action taken in line with the vision document.

The foundation of the inclusive development of GYAN presented by us in the previous session, today’s budget is the next step in the chain of development.

In the last budget, we have not only created schemes by making GYAN i.e. Poor, Youth, Food Donor and Women as the focal point, but under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Vishnudev Sai ji, we have also delivered these schemes to the people day and night.

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of this budget, I would like to mention GATI, the strategy necessary to ensure GYAN or inclusive development.

GATI means:-

G – Good Governance

A – Accelerating Infrastructure

T – Technology

I – Industrial Growth

GATI is not only essential for the welfare of GYAN, but also to achieve our medium term goal of 2030 and long term goal of developed Chhattisgarh till 2047.

Good Governance

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in my last budget that economic growth through good governance is one of the 10 basic strategic pillars. Under the leadership of Hon’ble Shri Vishnudev Sai ji, we have formed the Good Governance and Convergence Department so that we can move towards the Prime Minister’s motto of good governance “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”. Chhattisgarh is probably the first state in the country to establish it as a new department.

To eliminate red tape, we are adopting e-office system so that files can be disposed of online in a timely manner, responsibility for delay can be fixed, and the risk of corruption can also be reduced.

We are using digital governance for easy and assured delivery of government facilities and schemes.

We have started Atal Monitoring Portal to continuously monitor the implementation of government schemes. A provision of 10 crores has been made for this purpose in this budget.

To prevent corruption in government procurement we have made procurement through GEM portal mandatory.

Our Government under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Vishnudev Sai Ji is determined to promote Ease of Doing Business EoDB in Chhattisgarh. We aim to implement a total of 216 reforms in 20 departments in the first phase. The main objective of this entire Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) is to bring transparency in the system and simplify the procedures by simplifying the rules.

Several steps are being taken by the Stamp and Registration Department to provide convenience to the general public while making better use of information technology. Sugam App is helping to prevent fake registry. Many processes are also being made paperless and faceless. 20 crores have been made in this budget to make 20 field offices of the Registrar into ideal sub-registrar offices. An easy system for people will also be established for land registry on the lines of passport office. A provision of only Rs 500 has been made instead of the fee of lakhs of rupees incurred in surrender and distribution, which will prevent lakhs of revenue disputes arising in the future.

CM Good Governance Fellowship scheme is being launched in association with higher technical educational institutes of the state to increase efficiency of government departments, empower data management and encourage digital innovation. 10 crore provision has been made for this in this budget. This is probably the first attempt of its kind in the entire country to develop skilled human resources in collaboration with IIMs and IITs involving on-the-job training. This will provide our Chhattisgarh youth with high level job opportunities.

A provision of 22 crores has been made in the budget for the establishment of a modern call center for Chief Minister’s Helpline.

Mr. President, in the last one year, ACB has caught government officials red-handed in 54 cases and registered them as criminals. This shows the clear and strong political will of this government against corruption.

It is our government’s clear intention that after the supply of any item or service, it is ensured that the purchased item or service is of high quality and that the contractor, supplier or service provider is paid within a certain time frame. They don’t have to visit offices for payment. This will improve the quality of government work and reduce corruption.

A budgetary provision of 01 crore has been made to award CM Excellence Award in the state on the lines of PM Excellence Award for outstanding performance by public servants.

Mr. Speaker, we have received more than 6000 crores from the Government of India this year alone due to implementation of reforms being done by the State under the SCA scheme of the Government of India such as digitization of land records, scrapping of government vehicles more than 15 years old, liberalization of land use in industrial areas, digitization of registration process, SNA touch system etc.

Mr. Speaker, DMF was synonymous with corruption in the previous government. Under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister, we have decided to build a medical college in Dantewada with an amount of more than 250 crore rupees. We will establish many such examples of the use of data. A social audit of the work done under Kdath will also be ensured in future.

Mr. Speaker, this is the beginning of reforms, and this is the reform, on the basis of which Chhattisgarh will move forward rapidly to achieve the goals of Amritkal.

Accelerating Infrastructure

Mr. Speaker, I had also mentioned “Maximum Capital Expenditure” as one of the 10 pillar pillars in my previous budget. Earlier today I have mentioned in detail the achievements of our state in 25 years. We are celebrating this year as Atal Ji’s birth centenary year. We have decided to build trust not only in Chhattisgarh but also in Chhattisgarh ही, इस निर्मन का The aim is to create new opportunities in all areas.

In our government’s first budget, we made a provision of 22,300 crores for capital expenditure. 26,341 crore has been made for capital expenditure in this budget, increasing by 18 per cent, which is 16 per cent of the total budget. This increase in capital expenditure is historic in itself and a new record. Capital expenditure is the backbone of any economy. Economists believe that a capital expenditure of 1 rupee has an economic impact of more than 4 rupees in the economy in the long run.

1,051 crore has been received as an incentive to the state this year under SCA: Special Capital Assistance by the Government of India as a result of efforts to increase capital expenditure.

Sir, I would like to tell you that there is a shortage of engineers in all construction departments like PWD, PHE Jal Resources etc due to non-recruitment of all engineers since last many years. In the last one year we have given financial permission for the recruitment of more than 600 engineers so that adequate human resources are available in these departments and economic development can be accelerated by increasing capital expenditure.

Our government has prepared Road Plan 2030 for a strong network of roads. The main purpose of which is to lay a network of wide and advanced roads from the capital to the district, from the district to the district, from the district to the development section and from the development section to the development section level.

Keeping in mind the development of small towns which are Nagar Panchayats or Municipalities, we have included a new scheme, the Chief Minister’s Ring Road Scheme in this budget and we have made a provision of 100 crores for this in the budget.

Mr. Speaker, there is a budget provision of about 9,500 crores in this budget for the public works department of the state. 2,000 crore has been made for the construction of new roads in a financial year for the first time after statehood. A provision of 20 crores has been made under the OPRMC: Output and Performance based Road assets Maintenance Contract scheme for the first time in the state to implement a system like the maintenance of national highways on state roads and main district roads as well.

Double Engine Government is not just a slogan but an effective reality, I would like to give a proof that the Government of India has sanctioned works of about 20 thousand crore rupees in the last one year for the construction of national highways in the state.

Mr. Speaker, 845 crores under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana PMGSY, 500 crores under Pradhan Mantri Janman Yojana and 119 crores under Chief Minister Gram Sadak Yojana MMGSY have been provided for construction of paved perennial roads in the rural areas of the state.