The government has raised the budgetary allocation for flagship welfare schemes under the Rural Development Ministry to Rs 1.17 lakh crore and reduced funds for rural employment scheme MGNREGA and PMAY (rural) for the 2019-2020 fiscal.
The revised estimate for rural welfare schemes in 2018-19 was Rs 1.12 lakh crore.
According to the budget document, the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MNREGA) was decreased from Rs 60,000 crore for 2019-20 fiscal from 2018-19 revised estimate of Rs 61,084 crore.
The provision for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (rural) for 2019-20 fiscal declined to Rs 19,000 crore from the 2018-19 revised estimate of Rs 19,900 crore.
PMAY is a flagship scheme of the government for achieving the 'housing for all' objective by 2022. The government aims to provide 1.95 crore more homes by the end 2021-22 financial year.
Referring to 'housing for all' in her budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "A total of 1.54 crore rural homes have been completed in the last five years. In the second phase of PMAY-G, during 2019-20 to 2021-22, 1.95 crore houses are proposed to be provided to eligible beneficiaries."
She further said these houses will have amenities such as toilets, electricity and LPG connections.
"With the use of technology, the DBT platform and technology inputs, average number of days for completion of houses has reduced from 314 days in 2015-16 to 114 days in 2017-18," the minister said.
The government has substantially raised the allocation of funds for National Livelihood Mission to Rs 9,024 crore for the current fiscal compared to revised estimate of Rs 5,783 crore for the last fiscal.
For Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, the allocation has been increased to Rs 19,000 crore from Rs 15,500 crore in the same period.
The fund for Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) also jumped to Rs 800 crore from Rs 451 crore during the period under purview.
Sitharaman also announced special loan for women of self-help groups (SHG) under MUDRA scheme, saying this government has supported and encouraged women entrepreneurship through various other such schemes such as Stand up India and the Self Help Group (SHG) movement.
"In order to further encourage women enterprise, I propose to expand the Women SHG interest subvention programme to all districts. Furthermore, for every verified women SHG member having a Jan Dhan Bank Account, an overdraft of Rs 5,000 shall be allowed. One woman in every SHG will also be made eligible for a loan up to 1 lakh under the MUDRA scheme," she said.
Emphasising that the budget provides adequate funds for all welfare schemes under the ministry, Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Sinha said the MGNREGA and PMAY are demand-based schemes, if more funds are required then that can be made availed from NABARD.
Sinha further said last year too, when addition funds were sought for the MGNREGA, it was provided by the government.
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