Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar on Monday congratulated Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for 'presenting a growth oriented and people friendly budget' and said that it would play an important role in country's rejuvenation and restore confidence.
"I congratulate Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for presenting a growth oriented and people friendly budget today. The Finance Minister has presented a revival budget which will play an important role in the country's rejuvenation and restore confidence in Asia's third-largest economy," he said.
As Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, he said he was happy about the proposed reform proposed for the fertilizer sector and much needed transformation in the agriculture envisaged in the budget as this will go a long way in ensuring sustainable livelihoods for farmers and food security.
"With this, the Government led by the Prime Minister has illustrated the unwavering commitment to serving the poor. The proposal to introduce a pilot project of DBT to fertilizers would plug in the loopholes and ensure that the subsidy reaches the farmers directly. Further the proposal to enact a law to confer benefits on deserving sections on AADHAR platform will go a long way to ensure that the benefits given by the government reaches the deserving directly," he said.
"The Government has announced to provide LPG connections to women of 1.5 cr BPL households at a cost of Rs. 2,000 crore in 2016-17. This would result in the improvement in the health condition of the women and empower them, generate employment opportunities in the rural areas and save substantial time for cooking to the women which could be used for productive work," he added.
"The Budget of Narendra Modi's Government presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely today, is Growth Oriented, Pro-Poor and pro-Middle Class, giving fillip to Infrastructure and Agricultural Growth, Investment Friendly while addressing the stagnation in a large number of critical development areas such as Education, Health, Upliftment of SCs and STs, Women's safety, Gender issues and Care of Children and gives special focus on the Agricultural Sector and Rural Economy," he added.
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The Union Minister said that last year budget had yielded positive results and this budget presented by the Government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Modi would be an effort to further improve on the action plan to make the Indian Economy one of the most vibrant in the world.
"Steps taken in the budget to increase the crop yield in the rain-fed areas, substantial budget allocation to crop insurance scheme will protect the farming community in a big way. Animal welfare and wellness programme is the first of its kind which will protect the cattle stock in the country," he said.
"The budget has reflected its intention to improve the life of the farming, the backbone of the food security of our country and the people of the rural areas by allocating an amount of Rs.35983 crores for agriculture and farmers' welfare. The enhancement of the allocation for new infrastructure projects for irrigation, fertilizers and to enhance the coverage of irrigated areas is a major step which will go a long way in augmenting the income of the farmers. A unified e-platform for marketing purpose of the farmers is also a gigantic step which will go a long way in mitigating waste of agricultural produce and would yield better rates to them. Substantial allocation for National Soil Health scheme, increased production by way of organic farming, creation of long term irrigation fund, agricultural credit, interest subvention to the agricultural credit etc., will enhance the earnings of the farming community," he added.
The Minister said that organic farming has been given a big push wherein the government will reorient its intervention in the farm and non-farm sector to double the income of farmers by 2022.5 lakh acres to be brought under organic farming over a three-year period, which will increase the production of cultivation to a large extent.
"The increased allocation for Schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), would specially benefit the poor and the underprivileged. The proposal to cover 6 crore additional households under digital literacy scheme in next 3 years, is a step in the direction of adopting the technology for development of the people of the Country and augment the literacy level," he further said.