The Hindu Business Line : Social sector schemes get a big boost

To give a boost to education and better the job scenario, the Budget has proposed a full interest subsidy scheme on education loans for poor students.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, July 6 The social sector is a clear winner in Budget 2009-10, with an enhanced allocation on five fronts for the aam aadmi — employment, food security, education, health and housing.

To enhance employment, the 100-day rural employment scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been given an allocation of Rs 39,100 crore in 2009-10, an increase of 144 per cent over the previous Budget.

This would clearly increase its reach from the 4.5 crore people it currently impacts. Along with this, the rural infrastructure programme under Bharat Nirman, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has also been given an impetus of Rs 12,000 crore, a 59 per cent increase in its outlay and the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Viduytikaran Yojana another Rs 7,000 crore.

The National Food Security Act was also announced, with an intention of early implementation.

“This will ensure that every family living below the poverty line in rural or urban areas will be entitled by law to 25 kg of rice or wheat a month at Rs 3/kg,” the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said.

Fillip to education

To give a boost to education and better the job scenario, the Budget has proposed a full interest subsidy scheme on education loans for poor students pursuing technical and professional courses in approved institutes, and allocated Rs 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs across the country.

The subsidy scheme will cover loans taken by such students from scheduled banks for any technical and professional approved course. However, the scheme will only cater to those students whose family income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh a year.

Health schemes

On the health front, the Finance Minister has proposed to bring all BPL families under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and increased the outlay for this by 40 per cent to Rs 350 crore. The National Rural Health Mission, essential for achieving the country’s health for all goal, also received an impetus of Rs 2,057 crore over and above the Rs 12,070 crore that had been provided in the interim budget.

Rural housing

For a rural housing thrust, the Budget proposed an increase of 63 per cent in the allocation for the Indira Awaas Yojana to Rs 8,800 crore.

Also, to broaden the pace of rural housing, Mr Mukherjee proposed to allocate, from the shortfall in priority sector lending of commercial banks, Rs 2,000 crore for Rural Housing Fund in the National Housing Bank.

The Budget has also provided relief for specific marginalised groups such as senior citizens, the physically challenged and women.

Personal income-tax

Personal income-tax ceiling has been raised to for women. For senior citizens, the tax exemption limit has gone up by Rs 15,000 to Rs 2.40 lakh from the current .

The physically challenged received some relief for medical treatment. “I propose to increase the deduction in respect of maintenance, including medical treatment, of a dependent with severe disability to Rs 1 lakh from the present limit of Rs 75,000, said Mr Mukherjee

For rural women specifically, the Budget proposed an increase in the corpus of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh to Rs 500 crore from the Rs 100 crore in recognition of its role as an instrument of socio-economic change and development.

The Government also proposed to enrol at least 50 per cent of all rural women as self-help group members over the next five years, and link these SHGs to banks. The Finance Minister said currently over 22 lakh such groups are linked to banks.

The Budget also increased the outlay for the Minority Affairs Ministry by 74 per cent to Rs 1,740 crore with a focus on educational schemes.

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