Comments
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not been overtly biased towards the pet schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while formulating her Budget.
Most of the Prime Minister’s pet schemes have seen just a slight increase in fund allocation in the government’s first Budget in its second-term. While the National Health Authority had demanded close to ₹8,000 crore it received only ₹6,400 crore in the 2019-20 Budget announcement. It is, however, much higher than the ₹2,400 crore allocated in 2018-19.
After claims that 100 per cent rural electrification has been achieved under the Saubhagya scheme, the government later shifted the goal posts. The Finance Minister said that rural electrification has been achieved with the exception of those who did not want to get connected. While ₹1,463.95 crore was spent in 2017-18 for Saubhagya, no additional budget allocation has been made in 2019-20 for this scheme.
Yet another dream scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for providing LPG connection to poor households, saw an actual spending in 2017-18 of ₹2,251.81 crore and even as the revised estimates of 2018-19 Budget stood at ₹3,200 crore, the Budget allocation in 2019-20 stood a tad lower at ₹2,724 crore for the scheme.
The scheme is facing teething problems. Even after an LPG connection is obtained women face hurdles in completely migrating to using pollution-free fuel due to multiple reasons.
Cost factor
“Our study shows that only about 20-30 per cent of Ujjwala beneficiaries have completely migrated from biomass to LPG. The cost of LPG is the biggest barrier that has been preventing this move, besides access and cultural or social biases. So the Ujjwala and Saubhgya schemes should provide additional financial help through Direct Benefit Transfer to low-income households to help them transition to clean energy options,” said Mitul Thapliyal, Partner at MicroSave Consulting.
Also, up to ₹16,888.22 crore was spent in 2017-18 for building toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission. In 2019-20, as the mission inches towards completion mode and is being re-engineered towards solid waste disposal management at the village-level, ₹9,994 crore has been allocated to the cause.
“However, the Budget could do more in promoting decentralised solid waste management in urban areas,” said Ajay Shankar, distinguished fellow at TERI.
Yet another pet project, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which looks to impart skills, saw a spending of ₹2,198.02 crore in 2017-18. In 2019-20, its Budget allocation has increased slightly to ₹2,989.21 crore. PMKVY is yet to achieve a balance between demand and supply as the on-ground requirement for skilling is huge. This is particularly the case in the construction sector where the demand for skilled labour is more than its supply. The scenario is similar in the hospitality sector.
While actual spending on Namami Gange, was ₹700 crore in 2017-18. It received a slight boost but not substantially at ₹750 crore in the 2019-20 allocations. The handling of the project has attracted criticism with rising pollution levels in the river in concentrated pockets especially in Varanasi and Kanpur.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.