Chandigarh, March 8 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is also the Finance Minister of the state, on Tuesday dedicated the budget for the year 2022-23 presented in the Vidhan Sabha to women. In the direction of women’s empowerment, the Chief Minister gave many significant gifts to women in the budget, as well as announced to start an award of Rs 5 lakhs in the name of Late Sushma Swaraj, the daughter of Haryana and women icon. Presenting his third consecutive budget in the House as the Finance Minister, Khattar, while praising the power of mothers on the occasion of International Women’s Day, said that without women the society cannot even be imagined. The women of Haryana have made their mark in many fields at the national and international level. In his budget speech, he also mentioned about the first female Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Shanno Devi and the first woman Deputy Speaker Lekhvati Jain. He said that this shows the fact that women have been represented in this great house from the very beginning. The Chief Minister also announced to increase the participation of women in Panchayati Raj Institutions to 50 percent seats instead of 33 per cent seats reserved for women. In addition, to attract women towards entrepreneurship, a new scheme, Haryana Mukhyamantri Udyami Yojana, has been announced. For this, assuming the annual income of the woman and her family members is less than Rs 5 lakh on the basis of the data of the Parivar Pehchan Patra, financial assistance of up to Rs 3 lakh will be given to the self-help group in the form of loan. Under this scheme, the Haryana Women Development Corporation will give a rebate of up to 7 per cent in interest for three years. Similarly, he also announced to provide affordable housing facilities to working women and for this, working women hostels would be set up in Panchkula, Gurugram and Faridabad. Apart from this, he also announced to explore the possibilities of setting up three women’s ashrams through ‘Sahbhagita’ during the year 2022-23. In women’s education, the process of opening a women’s college within a radius of 20 km is already going on. In his speech, the Chief Minister announced opening of three new women’s colleges at Kudal and Chhapar in Bhiwani district and Gannaur in Sonipat district. Considering the importance of Self Help Groups (SHGs), he has set a target of setting up 10,000 SHGs during the year 2022-23. Apart from this, families of women whose annual income is Rs 1.80 lakh or less will be given assistance from the central and state government. This will benefit about 50,000 women families of the state and increase their income. In his address, the Chief Minister requested the House to pass a unanimous resolution to increase the representation of women to 50 per cent in Panchayati Raj Institutions. DB GK