Pro-Farmer, Pro-Rural #VikasKaBudget

Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah had this to say on #VikasKaBudget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.

"By not focusing the benefits of Union Budget 2016 on the suit boot people Arun Jaitley has cleverly made the opposition's job a bit tougher."

Shivraj Singh Chouhan Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh said that, "I'm very happy as Union Budget 2016 has been dedicated to farmers".

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "What could be a better budget for common man? It will bring transformation in Rural India".

The budget 2016-17 comes across as one that is tailor made to shed the tag of "Suit-Boot Ki Sarkar" given to it by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

When FM was talking about the roadmap and priorities for the budget he had mentioned that the focus is on enhancing expenditure in priority areas of - farm and rural sector, social sector, infrastructure sector, employment generation and recapitalisation of the banks.

Budget allocations proved how focused he was on farm and rural sector. This is how the farm sector and rural sector benefitted from the budget:

Farm sector:

1. Allocation for Agriculture and Farmers' welfare is Rs. 35,984 crore.

2. ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana' to be implemented in mission mode. 28.5 lakh hectares will be brought under irrigation.

3. Implementation of 89 irrigation projects under AIBP, which are languishing for a long time, will be fast tracked.

4. A dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund will be created in NABARD with an initial corpus of about Rs. 20,000 crore.

5. Programme for sustainable management of ground water resources with an estimated cost of Rs. 6,000 crore will be implemented through 3 multilateral funding.

6. 5 lakh farm ponds and dug wells in rain fed areas and 10 lakh compost pits for production of organic manure will be taken up under MGNREGA.

7. Soil Health Card scheme will cover all 14 crore farm holdings by March 2017.

8. 2,000 model retail outlets of Fertilizer companies will be provided with soil and seed testing facilities during the next three years.

9. Promote organic farming through ‘Parmparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana' and 'Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region'.

10. Unified Agricultural Marketing e-Platform to provide a common e-market platform for wholesale markets.

11. Allocation under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana increased to Rs. 19,000 crore. Will connect remaining 65,000 eligible habitations by 2019.

12. To reduce the burden of loan repayment on farmers, a provision of Rs. 15,000 crore has been made in the BE 2016-17 towards interest subvention.

13. Allocation under Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana Rs. 5,500 crore.

14. Rs. 850 crore for four dairying projects - ‘Pashudhan Sanjivani', ‘Nakul Swasthya Patra', ‘E-Pashudhan Haat' and National Genomic Centre for indigenous breeds

Rural sector:

1. Allocation for rural sector - Rs. 87,765 crore.

2. Rs. 2.87 lakh crore will be given as Grant in Aid to Gram Panchayats and Municipalities as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.

3. Every block under drought and rural distress will be taken up as an intensive Block under the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Mission.

4. A sum of Rs. 38,500 crore allocated for MGNREGS.

5. 300 Rurban Clusters will be developed under the Shyama Prasad 4 Mukherjee Rurban Mission.

6. 100% village electrification by 1st May, 2018.

7. District Level Committees under Chairmanship of senior most Lok Sabha MP from the district for monitoring and implementation of designated Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes.

8. Priority allocation from Centrally Sponsored Schemes to be made to reward villages that have become free from open defecation.

9. A new Digital Literacy Mission Scheme for rural India to cover around 6 crore additional household within the next 3 years.

10. National Land Record Modernisation Programme has been revamped.

11. New scheme Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan proposed with allocation of Rs. 655 crore.