Budget pro-poor, pro-farmer: Sonowal

Hailing the 2017-2018 Union Budget as "pro-poor, pro-farmer, welfare and growth-oriented", Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said it had something for every section of the society.
In a statement, he praised the budgetary provision of Rs 10 lakh crore as credit to farmers with a 60-day period for interest waiver and stated that the increase of funds to NABARD and the dedicated micro-irrigation fund for it will greatly help the farm sector.
Lauding the move to create a dairy processing infrastructure fund, Sonowal, who heads a BJP-led government in the state, said the mini-labs in krishi vigyan kendras for soil-testing will give a further boost to the process of issuance of soil cards.

The government's target to pull one crore households out of poverty by 2019, take up five lakh farm ponds under MGNREGA during 2017-18, of over Rs 3 lakh crore for rural India and using space technology in a big way to plan MGNREGA works would help double the income of farmers, he claimed.
Referring to the allocation of Rs 19,000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2017-18 to complete one crore houses for the homeless, the chief minister said it will immensely boost the government's 'Housing for All' dream.
Further appreciating the government's flagship programmes, Sonowal lauded the Union Finance Minister's statements in the Budget Session that the 'Swachh Bharat' mission had made tremendous progress and sanitation coverage had gone up from 42 per cent in October, 2014 to 60 per cent now.

Sonowal also said the allocation of Rs 1,84,632 crore for

women and children, scheme for pregnant women, structural transformation of the regulatory framework for medical education and transforming 1.5 lakh health sub-centres into health wellness centres would leave an "effective impact" on the health sector.
He lauded the utilisation of surplus liquidity of Rs 52,393 crore to reduce the lending rates for housing and allocation for the Scheduled Caste.
Sonowal favoured the measures and allocations for the Railways, including obliterating the service charge while booking tickets with IRCTC, the 'raksha' coach, elimination of unmanned level crossings by 2020, commissioning of 3,500 kms of railway track this year, SMS-based 'clean-my-coach' service, the 'coach mitra' facility, bio-toilets in all the trains, differently-abled-friendly facilities at 500 stations and the competitive ticket booking facility.

2,000 kms for coastal connectivity of roads, Rs-64,000 crore allocation for highways, allocation of high-speed Internet to 1,50,000 gram panchayats etc. Will not only improve connectivity, but also ensure safe and secured travel for passengers, the Assam chief minister added.