Education, agri to get priority in Budget: FM

Education and agriculture sectors would get top priority in the coming Union Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said.

Education sector is being given importance as literacy alone could make India a super power, Chidambaram told a public meeting after distributing Congress membership cards to 2,000 people in his Lok Sabha constituency last night.

Assuring that the government would "take care of the farm sector," he asked farmers to "take care of the education" of their children.

Pointing to the February 29 Union Budget, he said education and farm sectors are his top priorities.

The UPA Government in the last three years had allocated Rs 28,600 crore for the education sector lending, of which Rs 17,636 crore had already been distributed, he said.

The amount was four times more than what was allocated during the BJP-led NDA regime, the Finance Minister said.

Chidambaram wanted the Congress workers, who had been distributed membership cards, to be "proud" to be associated with the more than a century old party that worked for the unity of the country.

"The Tamil Nadu Congress needs youth for further development of the state and the nation as a whole," he said.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President M Krishnaswamy lauded Chidambaram for making weekly visits to his constituency and listening to the people.

The Finance Minister's son and All India Congress Committee member Karthi P Chidambaram and AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu Arun Kumar were among those present.