No New Tax In Mohan Govt’s ‘Women-Centric Budget’, Introduces Milk In Midday Meal

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jagdish Devda on Wednesday presented a ‘women-centric’ budget for the state for 2026-27, sans any new tax.

Of the outlay of Rs 4,38,317 crore, the budget earmarked a whopping Rs 1,27,555 crore for various women welfare programmes, including self-help groups and the Ujjwala Yojana.

The state government’s flagship women-empowerment scheme, Ladli Behna Yojana, has received Rs 23,883 crore in the budget.

The scheme provides a monthly incentive of Rs 1,500 to around 1.25 crore women beneficiaries.

An amount of Rs 52,304 crore has been disbursed under the scheme ever since it was implemented on March one, 2023.

Mr. Devda announced that milk in tetra packs would be provided for free to the children up to Class eight in the government schools and the Anganwadi children.

This is the first time milk will be added in the midday meal, provided to the children, as a major nutritional intervention by the government.

Named ‘Yashoda Milk Supply Scheme’, it received an allocation of Rs 700 crore this year as part of Rs 6,600 crore five-year commitment.

Nearly 98.37 lakh school children and around 48 lakh Anganwadi children aged three to six are expected to benefit from the scheme.

The finance minister said that the budget is framed on the model ‘GYANII- Garib Kalyan (poor), Yuva Shakti (youth), Annadata (farmers), Nari Shakti (women empowerment), Infrastructure and Industry.

The budget presentation was marked by protests by the Congress MLAs over non-enhancement of MLA funds, in the House.