Chandigarh: In the Union Budget 2023-24 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, Punjab has got six unity malls and three nursing colleges.
This time too, the demand for a special package for the sensitive border state was ignored. The Punjab government, being a border state, had demanded Rs 100 crore for modernisation of the forces.
The Centre has announced setting up of 157 nursing colleges in the country. These nursing colleges are to be built in the same areas where work is underway to build 157 medical colleges under the Center’s scheme of 2014.
In Punjab, three nursing colleges will be set up at Kapurthala, Gurdaspur and Malerkotla. Apart from this, it has been announced in the Union Budget to open unity goods under one district one product.
Under this scheme, one unity mall will be opened in six districts of the state pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Fazilka, where the products of the concerned district will be sold.
The new budget also announced a scheme to provide 50-year loans without interest to states, although the main condition for this will be that a part of this debt should be spent as capital expenditure.
The scheme is likely to benefit Punjab as states have also been allowed a fiscal deficit of 3.5 per cent of GSDP, of which 0.5 per cent will be linked to power sector reforms. The state government had last year received permission to borrow 0.5 per cent from the market on the basis of GSDP.