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After Karnataka, it is Andhra Pradesh’s turn to have an exclusive Budget for Agriculture.
“The State Government is keen to submit a separate Budget. It is currently under the consideration of the Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy,” a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture told Business Line .
Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana had visited Bangalore recently along with top officials of agriculture and allied ministries to study the Karnataka model. Karnataka had become the first State in the country to come out with an exclusive Budget for Agriculture.
“After studying the model, the Agriculture Minister had submitted a report to the Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, and explained to him the importance of having a separate budget in order to focus more on the primary sector of economy,” the official said.
The Chief Minister too liked the idea and referred it to the Finance Minister for his consideration. “The Government is likely to take a call on the issue soon,” he said.
It, however, is not clear whether it would be implemented in the financial year 2013-14, considering the time constraint. “Generally, the Budget preparations begin six months ahead of the actual presentation of the budget. It will be too difficult to go for a separate Budget at a short notice,” he said.
Farmers’ associations, agricultural economists and scientists and non-governmental organisations have been demanding the State Government follow the Karnataka example. Early this month, they held a State-level meeting here to discuss the issue in detail.
Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Chetana Society and Centre for Sustainable Agriculture alleged that what the Government allocated for agriculture last year was peanuts considering the number of people depended on agriculture. “In a Budget of Rs 1.40 lakh crore, agriculture got just Rs 2,946 crore,” their representatives said.
They argued that a dedicated budget would improve accountability and a sense of responsibility for the administration.
> kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
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