Fewer idle minds, empty hands

The Budget decides to spend money so people can take home money.

Circumventing any differences that might arise on rural employment between the Ministry of Rural Development and the Finance Ministry, the Budget commits itself to allotting Rs 14,300 crore just for the rural employment programmes and promises to allot more money when the need arises, to fulfil the legal obligations under the Rural Employment Guarantees Scheme (REGS).

The Budget also provides for the recruitment of 1,50,000 more teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, in recognition of the success that the elementary education programme has had.

For the programme as a whole, including the scheme for girls' education, Rs 15,370 crore has been allotted in this Budget against Rs 11,219 crore in the last Budget.

The Budget doesn't go into the issue of financing, but stipulates Rs 14,300 crore be allocated for "a clutch of schemes" for rural employment, including the Food for Work programme.

Rs 12,870 crore has been allotted to rural employment programmes against Rs 9,000 crore in the last Budget, and Rs 2,700 crore has been allotted under the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY). In the last Budget, this sum was Rs 3,600 crore, but revised upwards in the Revised Estimate to Rs 7,650 crore.

The Budget says there are huge job opportunities in the manufacturing and services sector. In manufacturing, the Budget identifies textiles, food processing, petroleum, chemicals and petro-chemicals, leather and automobiles; and in services, tourism and software can offer a large number of jobs.

In the textiles sector, for the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) the allocation has been increased from Rs 435 crore to Rs 535 crore. Rs 189 crore has been provided for Integrated Textiles Parks, a scheme that was launched in October last year with the intention of creating 25 textile parks.

The Budget says, seven parks have been sanctioned and 10 parks have been identified for development and an allocation provided of Rs189 crore.

It promises funds when necessary for the Jute Technology Mission to be launched in 2006-07. The allocation for the handloom sector has been increased from Rs 195 crore to Rs 241 crore.