 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by BJP president Amit Shah at a meeting of ruling National Democratic Alliance MP's in New Delhi. lso seen in the picture are Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other leaders.")
A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his Budget for 2016-17, major functionaries of the Narendra Modi government, led by the Prime Minister and the ruling party chief, went on a media overdrive to highlight what they termed its pro-farmer, pro-poor characteristics.
Modi himself urged all members of Parliament from the ruling coalition, at a meeting in the morning, to go to their respective constituencies to publicise the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and other central programmes which have seen a rise in outlay.
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The crop insurance scheme got enhanced allocation of Rs 5,500 crore in the Budget. Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah lauded the PM and the finance minister for a pro-farmer and pro-village Budget. Festoons and banners commending the Budget donned the BJP head office.
Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu gave a 60-slide presentation on the achievements of the government so far. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Budget was aimed at addressing rural distress, to improve infrastructure and the business climate.
He said they'd enhanced public spending in key areas to keep up the growth momentum, amid global economic challenges.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the Budget would help address farm distress. “Now, the road to development will begin from villages,” he told reporters before highlighting all the pro-farmer measures announced. The Budget raised the total allocation for the ministry of agriculture by 94 per cent from the revised estimate of 2015-16, largely on account of an Rs 15,000 crore allocation for interest subvention, earlier part of the ministry of finance estimates and for the first time shown under the head of agriculture. If this is deducted, the actual rise in allocation comes to around 30 per cent.
“A lot of things might have been done by the previous governments and we are not discounting that but no government had thought of putting vital items of farm growth like irrigation, soil health cards, etc, on a mission mode in the past 60 years,” Singh said.
Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Budget would help in lowering the prices of essential commodities like pulses and oilseeds. Referring to the e-procurement announcement, he said many states had started procuring grain electronically and others would follow. Rural development minister Birender Singh hit back at the opposition Congress for accusing him of doing a U-turn on MGNREGA.
“Beneficiaries of MGNREGA felt cheated due to the manner in which the UPA implemented the scheme. We have tried to alleviate that,” Singh said.
MGNREGS, the rural job guarantee, got Rs 38,500 crore in the Budget, only Rs 3,800 crore more than last year. Rural development minister Birender Singh brushed aside criticism on this front, adding, “Beneficiaries felt cheated due to the manner in which the earlier government implemented the scheme. We have tried to alleviate that.” Water minister Uma Bhart said the overall allocation for her ministry had risen by 168 per cent in 2016-17. Groundwater recharging got 85 per cent more.
On the announcement of 100 per cent foreign investment to be allowed in marketing of food products made in India, food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said this would lead to creation of 'swadeshi infrastructure with videshi money'.
And, former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar termed the Budget ‘lot of empty slogans’ and did not share the Centre’s optimism that farmers' income could be doubled in five years.
