The budgetary allocation for flagship schemes under the Rural Development Ministry saw a substantial increase compared with the revised estimate of the current financial year.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in the Budget speech that the Centre would allocate Rs 80,194 crore in 2013-14 to the Ministry, marking an increase of 46 per cent.
In the last Budget, the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had made an allocation Rs 76,422 crore to the Ministry. But the actual spending in the current financial year was Rs 55,052 crore.
The prestigious Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme of the United Progressive Government will get Rs 33,000 crore, about Rs 4,000 crore more than this fiscal’s revised estimates.
Chidambaram added that the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana would get Rs 21,700 crore, while the Indira Awas Yojana would get Rs 15,184 crore.
Chidambaram said the objectives of PMGSY had been substantially fulfilled in several States. He said the Government would carve out PMGSY-II and allocate a portion of funds to it since these States wished to do more. The new scheme will benefit States such as Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.
He said details of the PMGSY-II will be announced by the Minister of Rural Development in due course.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation was allocated Rs 15,260 crore against the revised estimate of Rs 13,000 crore in the current year. The Finance Minister also proposed to provide Rs 1,400 crore toward setting up water purification plants as there were still 2,000 arsenic and 12,000 fluoride-affected rural habitations in the country.
Meanwhile, the Opposition criticised the Centre’s Budget allocation for the rural development. The CPI (M) said in a statement that there had not been any additional allocation on MNERGA compared with the last year despite rising unemployment in the backdrop of an economic slowdown.