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The Government of Assam has taken a very strong and historic step towards social reform and women empowerment in the state. A big and shocking proposal has been made in the state budget presented in the Assam Assembly on Friday. According to the new rules, any man who marries more than one (polygamy) will not be given the benefit of any government welfare scheme of the Assam government. Additionally, if a state government employee is found guilty of polygamy, he can be directly dismissed from the job.
Presenting the state’s first budget, Assam Finance Minister Jayant Malla Barua clarified in the Assembly that the main objective of government welfare schemes is not just to provide financial help to the needy, but also to strongly promote “inclusiveness, honesty and moral values” in the society through these schemes.
Steps taken for respect of women and gender justice
Giving special emphasis during the budget speech, Finance Minister Jayant Malla Barua said, “Our government is fully committed to promoting women’s empowerment and gender justice in the state. From now on, any man who has more than one marriage will not be considered eligible to avail the benefits of any welfare scheme of the government.”
Apart from this, the government has also proposed a major amendment to the ‘Assam Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964’ to maintain sanctity at the administrative level. After the implementation of this new amendment, if any government employee is found to be practicing more than one marriage in violation of the law, he will be immediately dismissed from service as per the rules.
Even criminals will not get benefit, schemes will start from August
Advocating honesty and responsible citizenship, the Finance Minister made another big announcement. He said that a person convicted by a court under any criminal law will also be completely ineligible to avail the benefits of the notified welfare schemes of the government. He also informed that since the regular budget was not available due to the election process, the government is going to restart all the stalled welfare schemes from the coming month of August.
The Assam government has also outlined many new schemes for the welfare of different sections of the society. All these beneficiary-based schemes will be implemented through a completely transparent and digital system. For this, ‘Digital Infrastructure for DBT Schemes’ (DIDS) will be used, which will include a strong system of authentication of beneficiaries. For these various schemes, the government has proposed to allocate a huge budget of more than Rs 6,000 crore under different heads.
Finance Minister presented budget of ₹2.85 lakh crore, cut in VAT
Finance Minister Barua presented a huge budget totaling Rs 2,85,084 crore for the financial year 2026-27 in the Assembly. In this budget, the tax exemption limit has been directly increased four times, giving huge relief to small tea producers of the state. Apart from this, a very populist proposal has been made to reduce the VAT on Piped Natural Gas (PNG) by about 10% to provide relief to the general public from inflation.
The government has announced to continue all its major and successful welfare schemes launched in the last five years. Also, a big target has been set to reduce the budget deficit to just Rs 419 crore this year by strengthening financial discipline.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called the decision historic
After the presentation of this historic budget of the state, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma strongly supported this decision of the government. Chief Minister Sarma tweeted, “Our government has taken this historic policy decision to protect women’s rights and bring gender equality in the society. Any man practicing polygamy or found guilty of any crime will no longer be able to avail the benefits of the welfare schemes of the Assam government. We are continuously working to build a transparent and ethical society in the state.”