The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh presented the biggest ever maiden budget of Rs 3.84 lakh crore but limited infrastructure development in the most populous state in the country at Rs 5,451 crore which is less than two per cent of the budget.

While the chief minister himself has been chanting the development mantra, it doesn’t look to be much more than lip-service. The budget for 2017-18 was only on ‘expected lines’ than carrying a vision for the future, to achieve the integrated development of Uttar Pradesh and the welfare of its people who gave the BJP a whopping majority of 325 of the 403 seats in the Assembly.

Despite the shortage of power, there was no announcement to set up power plants even after the chief minister’s promises of 18-24 hours uninterrupted power supply. India’s first super thermal power plant at Obra has been closed down. But the present government has no concern and plans from where will it provide power to industries and corporate house it plans to woo?

The previous Akhilesh Yadav government had allocated Rs 23,000 crore for changing old transmission lines in his budget for 2014-15 but not a penny has been allocated in the Yogi budget for new transmission lines, which are the biggest cause of line losses in Uttar Pradesh. Its dependency on central power pool has increased manifold but the state will never be self-reliant in energy generation.

Similarly, the budget has only made provisions to support central schemes for roads and expressways or to carry out work launched by previous regimes. Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal Expressways linking Delhi point towards this trend. The budget has made no announcement with regard to constructing new roads connecting it to national highways to reduce freight costs, to reap benefits post-GST regime.

Yogi’s decision not to splurge on infrastructure is based on the assumption that any government that spends on infrastructure development never wins polls. Akhilesh tried it by bringing Metro, constructing expressways and improving power situation but lost in 2017. The assumption is so deep-rooted that even Yogi, who talks development every second sentence, did not make any ambitious plan to create robust infrastructure to woo industries, which are still wary of the state and its deteriorating law and order.

To control rising crime, the government announced that it will fill vacancies for 32,200 posts, instead of spending money on modernising policing and setting up more police stations.

Though the Yogi government has fulfilled its biggest promise of allocating Rs 36,000 crore for farmers’ loan waiver, it has not elaborated on how and where it mopped up the funds for it. It will take the state a step backward as the waiver will not contribute anything to setting up new projects.

The budget focused on carrying forward its Sankalp Patra agenda and central schemes, launched by PM Narendra Modi, than to make any concrete plan for creating infrastructure which would have helped the present government to achieve the targeted 10 per cent growth rate.

At present, Uttar Pradesh is struggling with the lowest-ever growth rate between 3 to 5 per cent. The Yogi government did not show courage to undo what the previous two governments failed at and stuck to the BJP’s Sankalp Patra, which is rife with populist measures in view of the impending 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Superstition and populism has trumped Yogi’s maiden budget in which people of the state had great hope, development can wait for another day.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @srawans.