Sonia calls for more welfare scheme funds

RUN UP TO THE BUDGET 2006

Demand for more funds for the mid-day meal scheme.

Under pressure from the Left, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today pitched for higher budgetary allocation for social sectors like rural job and health schemes in the forthcoming Budget.

The UPA chairperson had a detailed meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia regarding stepping up allocations for schemes like the National Rural Health Scheme and National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, sources said.

Following this, Chidambaram and Ahluwalia also had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the sources added.

Though the finance ministry had earmarked Rs 13,000 crore for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, sources said the UPA chief favoured a higher allocation at Rs 16,500 crore as proposed by the ministry concerned.

She also wanted that the National Rural Health Mission be implemented on the lines of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and given the same priority.

Gandhi, who also heads the National Advisory Council, asked for an enhancement of funds for the mid-day meal scheme in the next Budget, the sources said.

In an earlier communication to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gandhi is understood to have expressed some reservation regarding allocations for many of the social sector programmes of the UPA government.

The gross budgetary support, which is spent on planned programmes of the government, may be fixed at around Rs 1,71,000 crore, which is over 19 per cent increase compared to this fiscal's GBS of Rs 1,44,000 crore.

Planning Commission wanted GBS to be scaled up 40 per cent to about rs 1,83,000 crore this fiscal.